rossco
Junior
Posts: 543
EIHL Team: Fife Flyers
NHL Team: Detroit Red Wings
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Post by rossco on Jul 14, 2019 16:40:56 GMT
There is a distinct lack of anything else to read at the moment and for those who either did not attend games last season or were not programme buyers I'll replicate a series of articles that gave a potted history of the club's last 80 years.
Creating a history of the club has been something I had been considering for a while, I have over the years done something similar with my local football club and now with a bit more time on my hands I decided to start my research. It will take a bit of time to put the full piece together and at that point decide if there is an appetite for a hard copy publication (a book) and or release the information digitally.
Anyone out there that might be interested in what I'm doing, for example I'm always on the look out for anyone who might have any old memorabilia that can be used as a source of information, then please feel free to drop me a message and we can discuss. Let's kick things off with the
1930's
The Flyers, as we know, arrived on the hockey scene as the decade was dwindling and they entered a sport which was in a vastly different place to how it had begun the 1930’s.
In 1929 the Scottish National League was formed, it consisted of 10 teams based out of the Crossmyloof Ice Rink in Glasgow. Bearsden, Achtungs, Queens, Glasgow Mohawks, Kelvingrove, Glasgow Skating Club, Glasgow University and Dennistoun were the City teams whilst two teams, Doonside (the original hockey club in Ayr) and Bridge of Weir, were not based in Glasgow, but still played out of Crossmyloof.
In its inaugural season, the league's 10 teams started by playing in a Points Competition. The five top teams in the standings went on to play in the First Division, while the bottom five finishers formed a Second Division. The Glasgow Mohawks won the First Division and became the first Scottish Champions.
By season 1935-36 Doonside, Achtungs, Bearden, Glasgow Skating club, Queens, Dennistoun and Bridge of Weir had all disappeared off the map. However, two new teams - the Glasgow Mustangs and Glasgow Lions - were formed.
A momentous event in UK hockey history occurred in February 1936 at the Garmisch-Partenkirchen Winter Olympics in Germany. The British national ice hockey team pulled off a major upset when they won the gold medal. Great Britain made history as the first team ever to win an Olympic, World, and European (its second) Championships and the first to win all three in the same year. They were the first team to stop Canada from winning the Olympic ice hockey gold, following Canada's four consecutive gold medals. Great Britain also became the first European nation to win the World Championships, following eight wins by Canada and one by the United States.
It is worthwhile recapping the victorious team as the dynamics within the GB selection for the tournament were about to influence the Scottish hockey in the very near future.
Carl Erhardt (Captain) – English born defenceman who went on to become a ref and life-time president of the British Ice Hockey council and of course whom today’s Elite League has a conference named after him
James Foster – Glasgow born goalie who emigrated at aged 7 to Canada
Gordon Dailley – Canadian born defenceman who moved to England when he was in his early 20’s, Canada protested that he and Jimmy Foster were not properly registered to play but this was turned down
Archibald Stinchcombe – English born right wing who played his entire career in the UK
Edgar Brenchley – English born right wing who moved to Ontario Canada when just a child, after playing he scouted for the Washington Capitals and was assistant coach with the Pittsburgh Penguins
John Coward – English born left wing who was trained in Canada after emigrating and was with the Richmond Hawks at this time
James Chappell – Born in Huddersfield but emigrated at age 10, centre with the Earls Court Rangers at this time and later joined the Flyers in their inaugural season.
Alexander Archer – Scottish parents, born in England but emigrated at age 3, right wing who was a member of the Wembley Lions and later coached at Murrayfield.
Gerry Davey – Canadian born right wing he came to England at aged 16 he played with Streatham at the time, he then joined the Falkirk Lions in their inaugural season and coached them the following year
James Borland – English born defenceman who learned his hockey in Montreal, he was with the Brighton Tigers at this time
Robert Wyman – English born and trained defenceman playing for Richmond Hawks
Jack Kilpatrick – English born left wing who was trained in Canada, played for the Wembley Lions
Arthur Child – English born goalie who moved to Canada aged 4, he played for the Wembley Lions and as back up he did not ice and did not then receive a medal, later became a politician in Ontario, Canada
The now five team Scottish National League finally expanded beyond the confines of Crossmyloof Ice Rink for the 1936-37 season, with the formation of the Perth Panthers, who played at the Central Scotland Ice Rink. The league, which had been strictly amateur at its outset, saw the first signs of semi-professionalism creep in this year, as Perth paid small "expenses" to obtain Canadian imports. A new rule, stipulating that the first placed team was required to finish at least three points ahead of any challengers, or face a playoff, was introduced this year. Glasgow Mohawks won the regular season by six points over the Glasgow Mustangs.
A second team in Perth, the Perth Black Hawks, joined the Scottish National League in 1937-38. The two Perth teams, aided by their semi-professional players, finished first and second in the league, with the Panthers coming in three points ahead of the Black Hawks.
The transition to semi-professionalism was complete by 1938-39, as the league further expanded, admitting the Dundee Tigers, Falkirk Lions, and the Fife Flyers, all of whom paid to acquire talent from Canada and England. Three teams folded prior to the season, the Glasgow Mustangs, Glasgow Lions, and the Perth Black Hawks. With the extensive amount of roster and team changes, the Points Competition was re-introduced this year to serve as a "settling in" period prior to the commencement of the league championship for the Canada Cup.
The Flyers first appearance coincided with the opening of the Kingsway Ice Rink in Dundee 24 hours earlier than the opening of the Auld Barn here in Kirkcaldy.
It is reported that the Flyers first took to the Kirkcaldy ice on the evening of Sunday 18th September to test the newly completed rink in what was an unofficial practice. From the quick-fire exchanges between defence and attack it was made clear that Mr J. C. Rolland, manager of the rink, had got together a good ice-hockey team. Relatives and friends of the directors, who afterwards took to the ice, included Miss Sheila Anderson, daughter of one of the directors and the first lady to use the ice. In today’s era of the zamboni the ice crew would have something to say about the various coins, ranging from sixpence to half a crown, which had been placed under the ice by well-wishers hanselling the rink.
The man who was charged with managing the rink and also that of forming the first Flyers team, in modern day terms he would have been the GM, was local business man Mr John C. Rolland, Maryfield, Milton Road, Kirkcaldy. It was reported in March 1938 that: “Mr Rolland is retaining his position on the board of directors, and he will take up his new duties when the rink is completed in autumn. Elder son of the late ex-Provost J. C. Rolland he is widely known both in Leven and in Kirkcaldy, where he has been in business as a painter and contractor for ten years. Mr Rolland is at present touring English ice stadiums. The family are well known in Fife golfing circles, and ex-Provost Rolland was former president of the Scottish Golf Union. Efforts are to be made by the appointed ice hockey coach, Les Lovell of Perth, to form the nucleus of the ice hockey team. Several well known players have been approached. It is understood that the team will be known as the Fife Flyers.”
MEET THE PLAYERS
So, let’s introduce the first Fife Flyers, who were heralded as “those ice wizards who are going to put Kirkcaldy on the ice hockey map!” and “according to form at any rate, the Kirkcaldy Ice Rink is going to be the venue of a serious challenge to other teams in Scotland”. Incidentally, the team we were advised in the weeks leading up to the first games would sport colours of light royal blue, white and gold. No mention of special opening night or themed jersey’s – oh how this writer loves tradition. I reckon however those first game worn jerseys would make a decent sum at auction today.
The team, “who should be a force to be reckoned with” consisted of six Canadian and four home trained players.
Goalie - Chick Kerr, one of the personalities of the game, who graduated in the Canadian team of North Battlefield Beavers. He was reputed to be one of the smallest keepers in the game but previous performances, especially with Streatham proved him to be a real live wire.
Left Defence - Les Lovell, formerly of Perth Blackhawks, Perth Panthers and Brighton Tigers. He was to be player coach and the first of 3 generations of Lovell to play here. He played for Scotland in all representative games and also helped complete the building work on the new rink.
Right Defence - Jack Stover who was six feet two inches in height and weighed over 14.5 stones played in junior ice hockey with the Chatham, Ontario, club then graduated to the intermediate stage with Queen’s Athletic club. The previous year he played with the Chatham Maroons who were finalists in the Michigan-Ontario league.
Right Defence - Alex Fullerton, one of the leading personalities in Scottish ice hockey circles. 29 years of age and over six feet. A stalwart in his customary position of right defence, a Scottish-trained player, having played for Kelvingrove in seasons 1932-35; Mohawks, 1935-37; and Mustangs, 1937-38. He played twice for Scotland against England, and has also appeared in representative matches against Wembley Canadians, Richmond Hawks, and Manchester.
Left Wing - Norman McQuade who used to turn out for Wembley Monarchs and prior to a few games for the Perth Panthers last season was coaching in Germany.
Centre - Len McCartney, Canadian born who was one of the mainstays of the Perth Panthers for the last two seasons and played for the Port Arthur club before heading over the Atlantic.
Right Wing - Tommy Durling a very fast lad who like Chick Kerr came originally from North Battlefield Beavers and besides playing for Streatham had been coaching at Zurich.
Left Wing - Tommy McInroy, the third of the Scottish born players, hailed from Blairgowrie and was Perth trained where he was a member of the Blackhawks.
Centre - Jimmy Chappell who for three seasons had been with Earl’s Court Rangers the crack London team. He was born in Huddersfield went to Canada at the age of 10 and learned the game in Oshawa Ontario where he progressed through the junior ranks to play with the Oshawa Collegiates and the Whitby Intermediates between 1931 and 1934. Ontario. The Flyers had an Olympic, World and European gold medallist on the team as he was a member of the famous 1936 GB title winning team.
Right Wing - Billy Fullerton, brother of Alex was quoted as having tremendous speed and also held the Scottish Ice Rink Championships title for speed and distance racing for some time.
The game today as we know has seen many changes in recent years, so it’s worth looking back at the rules back in the day that those sitting in your seats tonight, “which most people have but a hazy idea of” but regardless we can be sure would have been keeping an eager eye on in relation to the officials.
RULES OF THE GAME
The field play is divided into three zones, and of course at each end are the goals. The centre zone is the neutral tone and the remainder are the teams' zones in which attack and defence takes place. The goals themselves are four feet in height, six feet wide and nearly two feet in depth at the bottom. The puck, or disc, is made of solid rubber, three inches in diameter, one inch thick and weighs about 5 ½ ounces. While the players sticks are made entirely of wood without any notches or projections. They are limited in size to a 53 inches handle and a 14 ½ inches blade, except in the case of the goalminder who may use a heavier and wider stick.
The duration of the game is three periods of fifteen or twenty minutes actual playing time with rest periods of ten minutes. A goal is scored by the puck being driven fairly into the net or across the goal line by a stick. If the puck is kicked or thrown by hand into the net the goal is disallowed.
Three or four alternative players may enter into the play when the game is stopped, but no substitution may be made unless the actual player to be relieved has left the ice. Only six players from each team are allowed on the ice at the same time. As far as penalising players is concerned, the referee may do this for infringements of the rules according to the severity the offence. Players are penalised by being sent off the ice for various periods, and no substitute may be put on for a penalised player until the penalty has expired. Only three players may be in their own defence zone when the puck is outside that zone, and if an attacking player is tripped when in a scoring position in front of goal other than the netminder, in addition to penalising the offending player, the referee shall award a special penalty shot.
Commencing on each period and after a goal has been scored, the puck shall be faced by the referee dropping it between the sticks of the two centre-forward, with each team closer to their own goal than that of the opposing side. Other face-offs are made, so far as possible, where a misplay originated. The offside rule lays down that a player may be in any position in any zone with the following exception: He may only be in the attacking zone while the puck is that zone. A player may only enter the attacking zone in line or behind the puck carrier or puck. He may not take a pass from a team-mate who is, at the moment of passing, in another zone. A player may stop the puck with hand, body or skate at any time and in any position. He cannot, however, push the puck forward except with his skate stick.
Not significantly different to today but crucially this was all new to folks who came through these doors in their thousands.
OPENING MATCHES
Interesting to note that the week before their first match the Flyers were making news in the area news sections of the Fife Free Press, this entry was under the Gallatown heading “Hockey Player Injured.— While the Fife Flyers were practising on Thursday forenoon, one of the players was the victim of a mishap which was fortunately not of a serious nature. Three pucks were being used during the practice and two shots were sent in to “ Chick Kerr, the goaltender, at the same time. One of them struck him on the head above the eye and he had to have the injury stitched”. Indeed the Flyers were to suffer a further training accident that led to Billy Fullerton sitting out the opening games when he injured his collar bone.
So on to that first weekend of the Flyers existence. With both the Dundee and Kirkcaldy ice rinks opening over the same weekend it made perfect sense that each would stage an ice hockey match and that the teams competing at both would be the Dundee Tigers and he Fife Flyers.
The Flyers made the trip north of the Tay on Friday September 30th to face the Tigers.
It was unsurprisingly a full house but even so the directors and management were taken by surprise by the extraordinary crowds which practically fought for admission to the gala opening. The rink held a capacity of 4000 people, and at least 1000 more were turned away. A queue stretched four deep along Kingsway for 150 yards, and the start of the ice-hockey match had to be delayed for a few minutes in order to allow spectators time to reach their seats. Many motored to the rink, and from soon after seven o'clock a line of cars, in most places two deep, stretched along Kingsway and round the traffic circus into Strathmartine Road as far as the junction of Nevill Street. At least 500 cars were accommodated in the rink car park. Corporation tramcars on the Downfield route did capacity business. Though the ice-hockey was merely a friendly encounter between Dundee Tigers and Fife Flyers, the other newcomers to the Scottish game, the crowd left no doubt of their enthusiasm for a sport which is completely new to Dundee. The Tigers had the satisfaction of winning their first match by 5 goals to 2, though not finding their best form until the last period. During the first two periods, which were featured by some slack play on both sides, the Flyers were generally on top, but the Tigers' speed and combination were too much for them in the closing session. Tigers were well served in goal by Scotty Milne, loaned for the evening by Perth Panthers. Chick Kerr in the Flyers also got a great hand, especially when he resumed after a goalmouth spill with a large patch of plaster on his forehead. The match was not without its keen passages, and the " cooler," or penalty-box, had four occupants for brief spells. Rogers, Tigers' skipper, scored the rink's first goal in 10 minutes, finishing a solo run with an oblique shot from the right, which Kerr turned into the net. Five minutes later McQuade smacked in a smart shot, which Milne parried, and Len McCartney hit the return first-time to equalise for Flyers. The Flyers first ever ‘road goal’. The Flyers showed distinct improvement in the second period, and Jimmy Chappell squeezed the puck home just behind the post. Tigers play was much faster in the last period, and there was great excitement when Cranstoun levelled the scores from close in after a shot from Smith had been saved. Tigers went all out, and McNeil got through to score the best goal of the match. Now well on top, Tigers added further goals through Shannon, who streaked about 40 yards down the centre of the ice to net an unsavable shot, and a Lightfoot hook shot from an almost incredibly acute angle. The Teams were
Dundee Tigers—Scotty Milne (1); G. McNeil (2) and Biff Smith (3); Jimmy Shannon (9), Al Rogers (5), and Merrick Cranstoun (6). Reserve defence, D. Mitchell (4). Reserve attack —Jimmy Lightfoot (7), Fred Hill (8), and Glen Braid (10).
Fife Flyers—Chick Kerr (1); Les Lovell (2) and Jack Stover (3); Norman McQuade (7), Len McCartney (8), and Tommy Durling (5). Reserve Defence, Alex. Fullerton (9). Reserve attack —Tommy Mclnroy and Jimmy Chappell (6).
Referee—J. 0. McCabe, Glasgow.
After the game full advantage was taken the general skating with well over 500 skaters on the ice.
The following night, Saturday October 1st, the Kirkcaldy public got its first taste of ice hockey when the Tigers deservedly defeated the Flyers in the return exhibition match in the evening following similar celebrations to open the new rink. Two miles of cars and thousands of persons seeking admission reflected the enormous interest in the rink. Traffic to Gallatown was particularly heavy, and buses were packed. By the time the programme was due to commence at the rink, an audience of 4625 had assembled. Billy Fullerton was due to compete in one of the speed skating events but was left a spectator as he had injured his collar bone in a training accident. The Flyers were then announced individually by Mr Graham from Les Lovell, captain and coach down to “Wee Smith” , the soon to become legendary Bert Smith, the team’s mascot.
The visitors, although they lost the first goal, were always the more enterprising team, and it was not long before they were even terms. The delightful manner in which the Dundee team combined was most effective, and it was on very few occasions that a pass went astray. On the other hand the Flyers were more or less dependent upon individual efforts, and although they succeeded on many occasions in penetrating the visitors defence their shooting was not on the same par as their opponents. Perhaps the lack of combination was due to the players not playing together long enough as a team, as the opposition, and also that it is understood that the visitors have one the finest teams Scotland this season. The Kirkcaldy team look all the honours in the first session, and if it had not been but for the brilliance of Mac Ross in the Dundee goal they might well have been on the lead. It was midway through this period that Norman McQuade, receiving a pass from Durling. went through on his own and gave the goal-tender no chance with shot from well out. McQuade then the honour of Flyers first home goal. However, a few minutes later Dundee were on even terms when Smith netted following a brilliant individual effort. In the second period Dundee did the bulk of the attacking, but although the Flyers defence was hard pressed they always succeeded in frustrating the visiting efforts. They showed themselves to better advantage at the latter stages of this session, and on two occasions Thomson was rather lucky to effect clearances from Durling and McQuade when all seemed lost from the visitors point of view. The final session proved a thrilling affair. Right from the face-off Rogers worked his way down the left side and slammed in a terrific angular shot which Kerr did well to stop. Lovell, who was showing a keen appreciation of openings, dispossessed Braid, and darted through on his own but his parting shot went past. After four minutes’ play the visitors took the lead when Smith smacked home a pass from Cranstoun which gave Kerr no chance. Following a melee in the home goal zone Rogers further increased the visitors’ lead. Kerr, who was unsighted made no effort to save. Nearing time Dundee got a fourth goal when Shannon sent the puck into the net from the neutral zone following a face-off for a previous infringement. The Flyers tried hard to reduce the leeway, but met with little success, as the visitors’ defence was in tip-top form. McQuade, Durling and McCartney put in some wonderful stick-work but were inclined to be too selfish. Lovell was a strong resourceful defender and originated most of the attacks, while Kerr gave a grand display in goal. Outstanding for the visitors were McNeil, Rogers and Lightfoot.
Flyers—Kerr (1); Lovell (2) and Stover (3), Chappell (6), Durling (5), and McInroy (4), reserve attack—McQuade (9), McCartney (8), defence—A. Fullerton (9).
Tigers—Ross (1), Neil (2) and Smith (3), Lightfoot (7), Rogers (5) and Cranstoun (6) reserves —Mitchell (4), Shannon (9), Braid (10) and Hill (8)
Referee—B. Bernie. Glasgow.
In the Dundee team was centre Al Rogers, Al would later become the coach of the Flyers in 1946 and lead them to a number of honours in the late 40’s whilst himself winning the Coach of the Year accolade three times before the decade was out.
So, the Flyers were off and skating. Their first competitive fixture was just 5 days away with those inaugural hockey nights in Kirkcaldy being a Thursday evening, 8pm.
The Flyers first competitive fixture was at Kirkcaldy on Thursday 6th October when the Falkirk Lions visited. The Lions took a two goal lead before Norman McQuade scored the Flyers first competitive goal to set up a rousing finish. The Lions however extended their lead to win the encounter 3-1. The following Tuesday the Flyers gained their first points when the returned from Glasgow after a 2-2 tie with Kelvinside after goals from McQuade and McInroy had given them a two goal lead. A couple of nights later at home to Perth Panthers, the Flyers had their first win, a McCartney double, McInroy and Lovell goals gave the Flyers a comfortable 4-2 win. Their game against the Falkirk Lions on 10th November was reported in the local paper as sold out a week ahead of the date, the Kirkcaldy public were captivated by the new team in town. The Scottish Points competition essentially took place over the first half of the season with each team meeting twice home and away for a total of 20 games. The Flyers finished their fixtures in early January and finished 3rd in the table, 6 points behind winners Falkirk Lions, with a record of P20 W 10 L 6 D 4 F 75 A 62 Pts 24
The “proper” season then began with teams repeating the fixtures for the Canada Cup.
In late January the Flyers were to receive their first International honours with the confirmation of the Great Britain squad to compete in Switzerland for the World and European Championships.
Fife Flyers’ Tommy McInroy from Blairgowrie and Billy Fullerton, the flying Scot from Glasgow, were included in the list of thirteen players chosen by the British Ice Hockey Association after the final trial at Harringay. Joe Collins, Kelvingrove was also selected, and the three Scots would travel for World and European ice championships which take place in Basle and Zurich between February 3rd and 12th. When they turned out in the trial against Harringay Racers, national league champions, the three Scots impressed Percy Nicklin. coach to the British team and their selection was beyond doubt.
Mr John Ahearne, secretary of the B.I.H.A had something complimentary to say about Collins, McInroy and Fullerton and Scottish ice hockey in general at the conclusion of the trial game. If they are examples of ice hockey training in Scotland he said “England could well take a leaf out of their notebook. They show natural ability for team work, and their play in their own league matches will be sufficient to keep them in trim until they join us at Croydon on February 2nd.”
The 13. players who were chosen to go to Switzerland were: J. Foster (Harringay Greyhounds) G. Dailley and J. Kelly (Wembley Monarchs) S. Simon (Earls Court Redwings) R Wyman (Prince’s) J. Collins (Kelvingrove). W. Fullerton (Fife Flyers) P. Halford (Prince's) T. McInroy (Fife Flyers) T. Grace (Earl’s Court Marlboroughs), J Ridley (Earl’s Court Redwings). A. Green (Wembley Terriers), K. Perrin, (Earl’s Court Redwings).
There were no Canadian-born players in the above selection, and only three major league players—Foster, Dailley and Kelly were included. Britain had won the European championship for the last three years but how would they fare with this all-British side? The answer was that although they progressed from their qualification group, they then lost all 3 games in the second round and finished 8th of 13 overall (6th best European team)
Whilst the selection of these two players was indeed an honour for the fledgling Flyers team it also raised a political hot topic that interestingly has been a discussion point throughout the eras and to this very day opinions and solutions have an array of different points of view.
The selection of McInroy and Fullerton had a bearing on the Flyers bid to have the ‘seven-Canadian’ rule altered. Strictly speaking, of course, the absence of these two home-bred players should have been dealt with by replacing them temporarily with two other Scots but homebred players of the standard of McInroy and Fullerton were scarce. Flyers, at the time were endeavouring to get matters adjusted with the S.I.H.A so that they could register eight Canadians instead with the intention to nominate only seven for any one game. This wasn’t the only scenario that they were using as their basis of appeal. George Horn had been brought from Mohawks to take the place of Jack Stover as earlier in the season he had broken his wrist. Stover’s registration had to be cancelled to allow Horn to play, and now that Jack Stover was ready play again Flyers would have to cancel another Canadians registration before Stover could be re-introduced. To do so would be ingratitude at its worst and the Kirkcaldy management had no desire to do anything of the kind hence their application the S.I.H.A.
An observer also noted that “The youngsters here will come on by leaps and bounds, but restricting the numbers of Canadians will not help them any. Leave the Canadians alone, free from any restrictions and when Scotland has players of her own in sufficient numbers and up to the requisite standard, then the importation of Canadian talent will automatically decrease in proportion. In the hockey world a Free Trade policy will pay. Ability, not nationality should be the deciding factor”.
A week later it was reported that the S.I.H.A. sub-committee had agreed to recommend to the parent body that the number of imported players in each club be increased to eight, with the proviso that only seven of them may be nominated for each game. The Flyers had won the first round of their fight. The committee also recommended that in future players of Scottish parentage born in other countries should be considered home Scots provided they have lived in Scotland for a few years, and also provided they were willing to accept the lesser expense given to home Scots. At present Canadians got almost double the figure, some £4 per week.
From the 14th of January to the 27th April the Flyers completed their fixtures and the final table read as follows:
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Dundee Tigers 20 12 2 6 102 64 30
Perth Panthers 20 11 6 3 80 46 25
Fife Flyers 20 10 7 3 91 75 23
Kelvingrove 20 5 8 7 56 86 17
Glasgow Mohawks 20 5 11 4 68 95 14
Falkirk Lions 20 3 12 5 76 107 11
There were a number of Cup competitions played for during 1938-39 in what ended up being a 66 game season !
The Coronation Cup, donated by Mrs Fan H. Montgomery of St. Andrews, it was stated that "This knockout tournament is expected to develop into the premier national competition among ice-hockey clubs, this being the first trophy that has been presented on those lines". The tournament was staged in Perth every year until 1940. The Flyers crashed out 3-2 to the hosts.
A couple of nights later they travelled to Tayside to meet the Tigers in the Airlie Trophy. The Airlie Trophy was first contested this season and served as a minor rink tournament hosted at the Kingsway Rink in Dundee. It was donated by the Earl of Airlie. The Tigers romped the game 13-6 on their way to winning their own trophy against the Perth Panthers.
The Flyers clearly not making a name for themselves in cup competitions next entered the President’s Pucks when they met the Panthers in the semi-final at Crossmyloof. It was a Scottish cup competition introduced in 1933 to fill up the fixture schedule. Then Scottish Ice Hockey Association president, Frank Stuart, purchased and offered to award silver-plated ceremonial pucks to the winner.
The tournament went on to be contested annually through the 1938-39 season and the Panthers beat the Flyers 5-1 in their one and only venture in the competition.
The Mitchell Trophy was seen as a premier cup competition in Scotland from its inception in 1929-30 until its final edition in 1938-39. It was a single-elimination knockout tournament throughout its history, a total of seven different teams won the cup but the Flyers in their one and only shot didn’t get their name on it but did advance one round after beating Perth Panthers. They then fell to the eventual winners the Dundee Tigers in the semi- final in what was their first ever game to go beyond regulation, Tigers winning 6-4 after OT.
The Flyers eventually secured their first silverware. The Simpson Trophy was originally a competition between representative Glasgow Select and Perth Select sides. James Simpson, for whom the competition was named after, donated the trophy to be competed for on a two-leg basis by the two squads. Glasgow won the 1938 Simpson Trophy.
The Simpson Trophy became a Scottish-wide competition in 1938-39, but was still officially an inter-city competition, with one team representing each city. Each city faced one another on a home and away basis. The city with the best aggregate score over the two games received two points and one win in the standings. The Flyers defeated the Dundee Tigers 7-6 on aggregate (5-3 in the first leg, 2-3 in the second) in the final game to win the tournament with 4 aggregate wins and 8 points.
Another rink based tournament, this time in Falkirk saw the Flyers lose 5-2 in the first round of the Bairns Trophy to the host Lions.
No surprise that Kirkcaldy also hosted a cup competition, the Anderson Trophy (also sometimes referred to as the John Anderson Trophy) and the Flyers won the inaugural competition winning their semi-final against the Falkirk Lions and then defeating the Perth Panthers 1-0 in the final.
The season also saw the first visits of touring teams to Kirkcaldy. The Bristol Bombers visited on 16/2 and very spookily the scoreline was 16-2 in favour of the Flyers who spent a large part of the game trying to set up Jack Stover to score his first ever Flyers goal, to no avail. Here’s how the pregame notes suggested the Flyers would fare. “The Bristol Bombers, all-Canadian outfit trek North with a formidable record. They have twice run into double figures, 13 against Bournemouth Stags and 10 against a London Select, their greatest problem has been to find opposition worthy of their attention. The Bombers only defeat was handed out by a Wembley side that included five National League men and five of the best men in London Provincial sides. All of which points to the fact that the Flyers won’t have a holiday by any means”. So quite the outcome then, maybe it was the stovies!
A month later the Trail Smoke Eaters visited. Remember the GB team above who went to Switzerland to play in the World and European Championships, well the Trail Smoke Eaters, a team from Trail British Columbia, represented Canada at the tournament and were coming to Fife as World Champions after winning all of their games, including a 4-0 second round win against GB, and did so only losing a single goal.
The interest in the match, against a Scottish select side that included four Flyers, was unprecedented. The rink could easily have been sold out twice over leaving many disappointed that a second game in Kirkcaldy could not be arranged. The Flyers chosen to play were Horn, Durling, McCartney and McQuade and the game also saw a two ref system used for the first time, no linesmen in those days. The Select battled hard but were downed 3-0, a couple of nights later in Ayr the Smoke Eaters won 4-2 against another Scottish Select, McCartney and McQuade who assisted on both goals were the Flyers representatives.
Further changes ensued for 1939-40 as the Ayr Raiders and Dunfermline Vikings came aboard, while the Glasgow Mohawks and Kelvingrove disbanded. There was great uncertainty naturally at this time and it took until late October/early November for the S.I.H.A and the clubs to arrange some semblance of a hockey season and at one time ice hockey prospects seemed about as frozen as the surface on which the players career and cavort. Rather than the original plan of 10 clubs the opening of a six-club league competition was heralded by various friendlies in which the players from different clubs had been doing the rounds in order to complete depleted sides. Art Grant, Flyers' new netminder from Winnipeg, for example, had already helped Falkirk Lions, while the Flyers themselves had to assisted by players from other clubs. With all the chopping and changing of players amongst the teams a misunderstanding then developed amongst some of the fans, who had the idea that this sort of thing was going to continue all season, and they would as a result have no team that they could really call their own. This definitely was not the case. When the league started each team would have been completed by the “pooling process” and from then on each team would carry on with the players allocated. Well that was almost the case!
It is hard to say what longer term impact there was from the war on the young game of ice hockey. Had there been no international complications the season would have started off with a ten-club league and the barometer would have been set fair with prospects of still brighter days to come. In Kirkcaldy, as elsewhere, the new game caught on in a big way during its initial season, and there was little doubt at that time that given a fair break this grand Canadian game would have rapidly developed into one of our own national sports. Though war however, had changed things a bit, the thrills of the fastest game in the world continued to attract enthusiastic audiences and it was said that blue line would attract as much attention as the Siegfried Line.
In those early days it was a difficult job being a referee as was referenced by the Flyers manager Jack Wake that “the refereeing problem seems likely to be settled for good as it has been confirmed that there will be an English referee for the games this season and, without casting any aspersions against the whistlers we had with us last season, we must admit we are glad to hear it”
The initial Flyers team allocated from the pooling process was as follows: Art Grant, Les Lovell, George Scotland Horn, Glen Morrison, Frank Chase, Arnie Pratt, Frank Ney, Jimmy Shannon.
Within the opening week there some changes with Frank Chase going to Perth whilst Tommy McInroy returned to Fife. Former Falkirk player ‘Red’ Thomson replaced Lovell as Horn’s partner in defence. French-Canadian Paul Rheault another Winnipeg native who had played the previous two years with the Wembley Lions replaced Jimmy Shannon.
Grant was considered the best goaltender in the league. Forwards Pratt and Morrison both played well in their initial appearance. All were well known with the exception of Ney, who was a right-winger and joined up after a season in Poland a year ago. Previous to that, Ney played for Glasgow Mustangs and was described as a well built and robust type of player.
Nelson McCuaig was appointed as non-playing coach and was a former Falkirk Lion.
Flyers players that moved to other clubs were Durling, Chappell and McQuade to Dunfermline, where Durling was manager of the newly formed Vikings.
The games at Kirkcaldy remained Thursday evenings but with an earlier 7.15 p.m. start. There was to be no standing room but a number of seats were to be provided at a shilling so that those paying the “humble bob,’' would not be excluded but, on the contrary, be better provided for than before. A clock and a scoreboard were also unveiled at a newly refurbished rink which included the removal of seats down along the boards.
The teams were now to be known as Kirkcaldy, Dundee, Dunfermline, Perth, Falkirk and Ayr, “war-time economy” apparently being responsible for the dropping of the “livestock” in the shape of Tigers, Lions and Panthers, “war material,” such as Flyers, Raiders and old historical seadogs like the Vikings. However, as far as the enthusiasts were concerned, there was no official ban on the use of these colourful cognomens, even although the Flyers would now appear in jerseys with a large “K” on the front of it.
The Points Competition was once again contested to begin the season, followed by the league championship.
The Flyers finished 2nd six points behind winners Perth Panthers in the Points Competition but then went on to narrowly win the regular season but not the Canada Cup which had been retired as the championship trophy prior to the season.
GP W L D GF GA Pts
Fife Flyers 20 14 6 0 120 88 28
Falkirk Lions 20 13 6 1 103 88 27
Dundee Tigers 20 9 6 5 110 75 23
Perth Panthers 20 7 11 2 55 69 16
Ayr Raiders 20 7 12 1 76 97 15
Dunfermline Vikings 20 4 13 3 84 119 11
To decide the overall Scottish League Champions the Flyers and Panthers met on what was originally scheduled a best of 5 game series but was decided over 3 games. The first game in Kirkcaldy ended in a 4-4 tie with the Flyers then winning narrowly 4-3 in Perth in Game 2. The Flyers first league honours were secured on the 9th of May at home with a 5-4 win to be crowned Scottish League Champions.
The Flyers Championship winning line up was Fife Flyers—Grant, Horn, Ney, Morrison, Rheault, Pratt, Thomson, Schofield, McMillan
The Flyers had added a couple of players during the season. 21 year old Eddie McMillan was yet another from Winnipeg, Eddie had been considering working at his fathers’ gas station when he got the offer to join the Flyers in February. Earlier in December Jack Schofield, formerly of Perth and Dundee, was added to the roster.
Remember those early season sentiments expressed about the men in charge, so how did that work throughout the season? Well referee Jim Foley who refereed all Flyers’ games—or at least practically all of them—was never a popular figure at Kirkcaldy. A new referee was clamoured for frequently by those who thought the breaks were going too much against the home team. This being so one would have thought that Frank Chase, who deputised for Jim late in the season would have been welcomed with open arms. But what actually happened was that some of the crowd were soon declaring that they wanted Referee Foley? Whilst this was undoubtedly tough on Frank, it just shows that no matter who is referee the fans will never be pleased. Tell me that’s not the case today?
A closing note on the season is served from the pages of the Flyers final programme which it was suggested a copy should have been sent to Lord Haw Haw. In the issue manager Wake thanked the boys individually for their good work in the past season and gave Coach McCuaig a deserved pat on the back. But the bit that was of particular interest was the last sentence, “Don’t forget that the Flyers will be on the ice again next October, until then ‘Au Revoir’ and on behalf of all ice hockey fans we may say that Haw Haw can put that in his pipe and smoke it!”
War broke out and hockey was put into cold storage for six seasons, Lord Haw Haw wasn’t around when it returned!!
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rossco
Junior
Posts: 543
EIHL Team: Fife Flyers
NHL Team: Detroit Red Wings
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Post by rossco on Jul 14, 2019 16:44:31 GMT
1940's
The words of rink Manager Wake in his programme notes of May, like the summer, had faded into the serious business of War by the autumn of 1940. There had been some hockey in Scotland, a summer league run mainly out of Ayr and Glasgow. It featured some of the past Flyers such as Red Thomson and Paul Rheault and teams called the Hurricanes and Defiants competed. Indeed in a game between these two, as a benefit for Les Lovell who was still recovering from losing the sight in one eye, Rheault scored 10 times in a 15-11 win, a score which it was claimed was the highest scoring hockey game in Scotland to that date in history. Not a fact that I can substantiate at the moment.
Closer to home there was precious little news in the local paper about ice hockey, the closest mention being a match that was to be arranged between the 9th Fife Sea Scouts and the 9th Fife Gordon Scouts, to be held when the frost sets in. Team members so far were; Jock King, Jim King, John Reid, James Brown, Jack Bissett and Jack Easson. Maybe one of those guys is still out there today ? People clung to hockey through the 30 minute Foster Hewitt programmes on the Forces radio station updating on the latest NHL action, invariably of the Leafs.
1941 commenced with the sobering news that Billy Fullerton had been killed on active service. He was the first Scot to pass the Civil Air Guard examinations shortly before the outbreak of war and when hostilities broke out he joined the R.A.F. and trained as a pilot. He quickly qualified as an officer. The game at that point didn’t matter.
In April the rink hosted its first ‘big’ match since the end of the 1939-40 season. It was a junior match between Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline in the semi-final of the Scottish Cup. The first leg at Dunfermline had ended 4-2 for the home team and although they put up a plucky show on their own ice in the return game, they went under by the only goal of the game and thus passed out of the competition by an aggregate score against them of 5-2. It was noted; “those who have been in touch with junior ice hockey this season would not be very surprised at the fine show put up by the teams, but to anyone who had not seen a junior game since last season then the fast and robust play was nothing short of a revelation. The Kirkcaldy juniors, wearing the Flyers’ jerseys, seemed to have inherited not a little of the fighting spirit of the former senior favourites and despite the fact that the opposition had the heavier team the local lads put up show that did them the utmost credit. All the lads on the ice were under 18 years of age but some of them were pretty hefty youths and on the reduced size of rink (a dance floor had been constructed at one end of the rink) they served up a game that kept the spectators and themselves lively. Les Lovell, the Kirkcaldy coach, has done a good job working with his lot.” A sign of times ahead as the pick of the bunch was a right wing by the name of Jimmy Mitchell.
For the remainder of the war the juniors would continue to play a fairly regular schedule of games whilst the rink hosted a variety of exhibition games on the new “two zone” sized ice where crowds in excess of 3000 would regularly attend. The list of games during 1941-42 which featured a number of the ex-Flyers, as well as other ‘weel kent’ Scottish hockey players, was as follows:
Sept 18th 1941 East (wearing Flyers jerseys) 15 West (wearing Perth Panthers jerseys) 12
Nov 6th 1941 Scottish Select 7 Royal Canadian Horse Artillery 2
Dec 11th 1941 Scottish All Stars 7 Canadian Army Unit No.3 6
Jan 1st 1942 Scottish All-Stars 7 Royal Canadian Horse Artillery Unit 2 3
Jan 15th 1942 Scottish All-Stars 8 Canadian Army Unit No.3 4
Jan 29th 1942 Scottish All-Stars 7 Canadian Army Unit No.4 4
Feb 19th 1942 Scottish Select 8 North Nova Scotia Regiment 6
Apr 2nd 1942 Scotland 6 Canada 4
in aid of the R.A.F. Benevolent Fund
Apr 16th 1942 All-Stars 3 Royal Canadian Artillery 8
Apr 30th 1942 All-Stars 10 Royal Canadian Medical Corps 10
Perhaps the most noteworthy game however took place on the 15th of February 1942. It was a Sunday, it involved a charity gala to raise money for the Kirkcaldy Hospital and saw the Kirkcaldy and Dunfermline Juniors meet in a game won 3-0 by Dunfermline. What a stooshie it created with the local kirk. The action of Kirkcaldy Magistrates granting permission for an Ice hockey match to be held on the sabbath brought forth a vigorous protest from Kirkcaldy ministers, whose action was endorsed by Kirkcaldy Presbytery who described the holding of such an exhibition on a Sunday as "an outrage on the feelings of many of the most responsible people of the burgh and a violation of the best traditions of our Scottish life”. The war of words continued in the newspapers for a number of months with the organiser Bailey Jeffrey having a final say in May when he stated “In connection with the recent ice hockey match at Kirkcaldy Ice Rink, I have no regrets and if the ministers termed it organised sport then I have another name for it. I will answer for my acts to my God and my own conscience and not any particular body in this town”. Loud applause interrupted him when he asked what the churches were doing for young people in these dark days of war and if the ministers were “afraid for their church attendances”.
In the autumn of 1942 there was an optimistic view taken by Mr Wake when he stated “Everything seems to be pointing the right way for the Kirkcaldy public to see some outstanding ice hockey matches during the coming season. Attractions will be the semi-final and final play-offs of the Canadian Army Championship, which is to played in Scotland this year”
The matches that took place were as follows:
Oct 22nd 1942 Royal Canadian Horse Artillery 5 Royal Canadian Artillery 2
Nov 12th 1942 Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders 5 North Shore Regiment 3
Jan 7th 1943 Scottish All-Stars 6 Fort Garry Horse (Canadian Army) 7
Feb 18th 1943 Scottish All-Stars 7 Canadian Military HQ 7
Apt 1st 1943 Scottish All-Stars Canadian Navy
Not the anticipated programme of games that Mr Wake had predicted and it may just have been coincidence but the frequency of skates for sale in the local paper had dramatically increased as the year progressed. Someone was even parting with their Flyers scarf!
In June 1943 it was reported that Pilot Officer Art Grant was missing in action. He had just married a local girl in the past September. Then in November 1943 Mrs A. G. Grant received confirmation of the death on active service of her husband. To Kirkcaldy ice hockey fans Pilot Officer Grant was better known as Art Grant, the netminder of the then most successful team Fife Flyers had. This was the team which played in the 1939-40 season coached by Nelson McCuaig, and carried off most of the season’s honours. Grant had been in the Royal Canadian Air Force for two years.
There was a sizeable hiatus in the exhibition games and it wasn’t until the following December that hockey needs were whetted. It was quite the prospect too with the Royal Canadian Air Force meeting the Royal Canadian Navy, the RCAF advertised as boasting the entire Boston Bruins famous “Kraut Line”. Center Milt Schmidt, left wing Woody Dumart and right winger Bobby Bauer. As it transpired Bauer did not play but Schmidt and Dumart combined for 5 goals and it was suggested that this was the first time NHL players had appeared in Scotland. The other games played were:
Dec 9th 1944 Royal Canadian Air Force 11 Royal Canadian Navy 5
Jan 18th 1945 2nd Canadian Infantry 3 Canadian Based Workshop 4
Feb 8th 1945 London All-Stars 8 Army Transport 1
Mar 22nd 1945 Canadian Army 1st CARU 9 Royal Canadian Air Force 3
Apr 5th 1945 Canadian Army 1st CCOD 8 Royal Canadian Air Force 4
Kirkcaldy Juniors beat their Dundee counterparts on 25th April by 9 goals to 1 with Jimmy Mitchell netting three.
Season 1945-46 was to be the last under the grey clouds of war but not without a degree of uncertainty. The exhibition games were as follows:
Nov 7th 1945 Canadian Army Select 7 Canadian Based Workshops 3
Dec 20th 1945 Bruins 3 Redwings 3 - no not the NHL teams
Jan 10th 1946 London Rangers 4 H.M.C.S Nioble 4
Jan 24th 1946 Borden Command 4 Aldershot Command 1
Kirkcaldy Juniors were having a good time of things in early 1946 with home wins over Dunfermline 4-1, Falkirk 7-1, Dundee 10-0 witnessed by crowds of around 1500 and a 14-0 win against Dundee over the Tay with over 100 travelling supporters in attendance. In March 3000 packed the rink to watch them lose 2-1 to Dunfermline. The thirst for senior hockey was obvious.
The following was reported in March 1946.
“Whether Kirkcaldy can take part in the senior ice-hockey league next season depends entirely on the Ministry of Works. According to Mr Wake it will be impossible for the Flyers to enter into competitive hockey unless the rink is extended to its previous length. If this is done the dance floor will have to be removed. To overcome these difficulties the directorate have decided to apply to the Ministry of Works to build a Ballroom over the restaurant. With reference to senior ice-hockey players Mr Wake said that Kirkcaldy had a representative in Canada at present with a view to signing some players if necessary. It has recently been disclosed that eighty Canadian players are coming to Scotland for the senior ice-hockey competitions which are expected to start to October. The league is likely to consist of seven teams. That of course is provided that Kirkcaldy can make the necessary alterations by then. The following teams are likely to take part the league; Kirkcaldy, Dunfermline, Dundee, Perth, Ayr, Paisley and Falkirk.” It was suggested there could even be a team representing Glasgow.
There was a passionate plea from a local supporter in a letter to the Editor at the Fife Free Press.
“On all sides one hears of the great ice hockey “boom” that is anticipated in Scotland next season when competitive senior play will be resumed. Local ice hockey enthusiasts may have their hopes dashed by news of the “difficulties” in regard to our local Ice Rink, which apparently may result in Kirkcaldy not being able to take part in the ice hockey revival. It is obvious to anyone that if Kirkcaldy is to take part in senior ice hockey next year the ice surface will have to be restored to its normal size removing the dance floor which has occupied the bottom of the rink for several years. But why on earth should the removal of the dance floor be subject to approval being given by the Ministry of Works for the erection of another ballroom over the restaurant? There are dozens of places in Kirkcaldy where dancing can be indulged in but there is only one Ice Rink. After all it is an Ice Rink first and foremost and if a choice has to be made between dancing, which can be enjoyed in various halls throughout the town, or ice hockey, which can only be played in this country on an expensive ice surface such as we have in the Ice Rink, surely the dancing and not the ice hockey enthusiasts should be sacrificed. If, for the reasons given Kirkcaldy does not take part in the ice hockey "boom” next season, then I am afraid senior ice hockey in Kirkcaldy will be doomed. After all ice hockey enthusiasts have some common-sense, and if they see that ice hockey is a secondary consideration with the Ice Rink they will know what conclusions to draw. But I hope wiser counsels will prevail and the interest shown in Junior ice hockey should act as pointer to those in authority. Yours 2-4-6-8”.
The scribe would have been heartened by the news on June 15th where Mr Wake confirmed that despite the fact that they could not get a permit to extend the rink for the purpose of dancing, ice hockey would take place this season. The intention of the directorate was to acquire a retractable dance floor, which would be laid for the purpose of dancing, which could then be withdrawn to allow full ice for the hockey matches. A solution to keep everyone happy and with the following advert in the Fife Free Press on 19th August everyone knew that hockey was back in Kirkcaldy.
ICE HOCKEY TO RESUME - Preparations for the new season were underway. Disturbed by the outbreak of war after a short introduction to the Scottish public, ice hockey had continued during the first year of the war and then had to give way to more urgent matters, although the Junior teams and occasional games played between Canadian Service sides kept the game alive. It was good news to local enthusiasts to know that organised senior ice hockey was due to start up in October, for there was no doubt that despite its newness the game had made a strong impression on sports lovers and was ready to experience a great boom all over Scotland when the war intervened. Mr Festus Moffat, secretary of the S.I.H.A. was unable to go to Canada to arrange for the Canadian contingent to come over and join up with the Scottish clubs but this duty was willingly undertaken by the Canadian Amateur Ice Hockey Association and they found a tremendous response. Hundreds of Canucks were eager to come to Scotland and take up the game and a series of trial games had to be arranged to determine which of the aspirants would make the grade. Of this number 80 were selected and were due to make the trip early in September. On arrival they proceeded to the clubs to which they had been allocated through the pooling system. So far seven clubs were ready to take the ice, Fife Flyers, Dunfermline Vikings, Paisley Pirates, Dundee Tigers, Falkirk Lions, Ayr Raiders. and Perth Panthers. This would make a satisfactory line-up for the opening season and there were prospects that the number could yet be increased to eight, a situation that could easily be met in view of the number of Canadians who were coming over. The fixtures took the form of two leagues, the Sottish Flag Competition and the Scottish National League followed by the Canada Cup competition, making in all a 30-week season. It was noted that the local talent pool had benefitted from the Junior programmes in the war years and that, in particular in Kirkcaldy, those youngsters should be able to qualify for spots on the senior teams in the very near future.
Who were those first post war Flyers?
New coach Al Rodgers was a familiar name to all ice hockey enthusiasts, the 32-year-old Canadian came to this country with the first batch ice hockey players, and sported the colours of Brighton Tigers for two years before he came to Scotland to join Dundee Tigers in 1938. Rodgers started his hockey career at the age of 16 and after he had gone through all the intermediate stages he played his first senior ice hockey with the Saskatoon Quakers. In season 1933-34 his team were Western Canadian Champions and during that season he succeeded in gaining a life-long ambition when he was chosen for the right-wing position of the Canadian Olympic team to compete at the Games in Milan. The following season he toured Japan as player coach of the Battleford Hillers.
According to Jack Wake, who remained as Ice Rink manager, the players allocated to the Flyers would bring an accent on youth with the oldest player being just 21 years of age.
Netminder: Don Dougall - 18 years, 5 feet 7 inches, weight 155 lb. One of eight Kingston Ontario graduates to come over. The Kingston lads, wanted to play together but this was found impracticable. He played for Kingston “B” clubs, Kingston Falcons and Kingston Victorias. A good blocker with safe hands.
Defence: Bob Londry - 19 years, 6 feet 1 inch. Another Kingston boy and team-mate of Dougall. A left-hand shot with NHL prospects. Sound defensive play combined with speedy rushes.
Defence: Floyd Snider – 20 years, 5 feet 9 inches. Kingston Victorias teammate of Dougall and Londry. Another left-hander of the aggressive type.
Defence: Harry O'Connor - 19 years, 5 feet 8 inches, weight 160 lbs. Hailed from Galt Ontario and passed up a chance to play for Galt Red Wings, Junior championship favourites, to come to Scotland. Was a sensation with Galt Junior Bees last season.
Centre: Bob Lantz - another Galt Ontario product. Played tor Woodstock Junior Bees in 1945 then recalled to Galt and headed the team scoring. Extremely fast and dangerous.
Left Wing: Earl McCrone - 19 years, 5 feet 10 inches, weight 175 lb from Toronto, Ontario. Smooth skater with size and speed, he is a finished wing performer.
Right Wing: Jim McKenzie – 18 years, 5 feet 10 inches. From Galt Ontario. Played for Woodstock in 1945 and on recall to Galt made a great hit.
Centre second Line: John Drummond - 19 years, 5 feet 8 inches, weight 162 lb from the famous Oshawa Generals school and due to play with the Generals after a successful season with the Colts.
Left Wing second line: Howard Duffield - 19 years, 5 feet 8 inches, weight 151 lb. Three years as a Junior with Grimsby Peach Buds and last year with Grimsby Peach Kings. Left-hand shot.
Right Wing second line: Harold ‘Bob’ Scrutton - 21 years, 5 feet 9 inches, weight 152 Ib. Veteran of the team. Flaming redhead with speed to burn. Sent to Scotland by Mike Bodden, sports editor of the Kingston Whig-standard. Mike a former NHL referee claimed “this boy will be in the first five in Scottish scoring”. This turned out to be hugely prophetic.
On 25th September these young new Flyers got the season underway in Falkirk and early season optimism seemed founded when they returned home after a spectacular 10-4 victory in the Flag Competition. McCrone top scored with four, Drummond two and singles from Lantz, Scrutton, Duffield and O’Connor. It was to be a false dawn. The following night in a soldout Kirkcaldy Ice Rink they crashed 7-2 to Paisley Pirates, the team would lose six on the bounce and from the twelve Flag Competition games would only record three wins to finish bottom of the seven team table. It turned out to be the one and only season of this competition.
The National League campaign got of to a much better start with five wins in the opening six matches and indeed they remained in the hunt for the title before eventually finishing third, 6 points behind the victorious Perth Panthers. The top four teams played in the post season playoff for the Anderson Trophy. In their semi-final the Flyers knocked off the Panthers 16-9 on aggregate, winning the home leg 9:2 and then met the Dunfermline Vikings, who had defeated the Paisley Pirates, in the Final. The Flyers lost both games to go down 7-2 on aggregate to their Kingdom rivals. The Canada Cup didn’t go well as they finished second from last however they nearly secured their first post war silverware in the Airlie Trophy when they finished runners up to Dundee Tigers.
In January it was decided by the SIHA to scrap the pool system and allow each team to determine their own procurement of the permitted eleven Canadians. As a final act each team were provided with an extra player and the Flyers picked up Pat Ratchford, ex-Harringay Racers. Before the war he played with Sudbury, a junior “A” combination and then joined the R.C.A.F. On his return from the Air Force he played two months with Sudbury Legion, a senior combine. Harringay picked him up and brought him over in October. 24 years of age and played left-wing and centre.
A statistical review of the season saw the “Bad Boy” honours go to the Dundee Tigers who racked up 651 PIMs with the Flyers runners up with 484 ‘cooler’ minutes. Dunfermline who were criticised every game for their robust play by the Flyers fans were next with 461 PIMs. The leading scorer was the Vikings Johnny Myke with 92 goals and 44 assists to total 136. The Tigers Johnny Evans was only one point behind with 73 goals and 62 assists to total 135. Third was the Tigers Farrell Gallagher with 77 goals and 54 assists for a total of 131. The Flyers captain ‘Bud’ Scrutton was fourth with 69 goals and 59 assists for a total of 128. Individual Flyers’ scoring records were:
Scrutton G 69 A 59 Points 128 McCrone G 67 A 31 Points 98
O’Connor G 44 A 36 Points 80 Snider G 29 A 32 Points 61
Lantz G 34 A 17 Points 51 King G 19 A 18 Points 37
Drummond G 21 A 12 Points 33 Ratchford G 13 A 12 Points 25
McKenzie G 4 A 10 Points 14 Londry G 1 A 6 Points 7
Mitchell G 4 A 1 Points 5 Duffield G 4 Points 4
Snider had the distinction of being the leading scorer amongst defenceman in the Scottish circuit. The “bad boy” of the Flyers’ team was O’Connor with 90 minutes in the cooler. He was closely followed by Londry with 83 minutes and McKenzie with 73 minutes. Over the season Flyers scored 309 goals, a record only beaten by Vikings with 313, an average over 65 games of 4.8 goals per game.
The Flyers announced before season end that five players were scheduled to return, Bud Scrutton, Earl McCrone, Floyd Snider, Bob Londry and Frank King who had joined the Flyers in November. Coach Rogers said that these players were practically an automatic choice, however a few of the other players were also under consideration.
One the eve of the 1947-48 season there were some concerns regarding the Canadian players due to come over for the new Scottish ice hockey season and who were likely to be held up because of certain difficulties that had arisen at the Canadian end. Mr Festus Moffat, secretary of the SIHA was just as puzzled as any regarding the story that the Canadian players had been “frozen” by the Canadian Amateur Ice Hockey Association until the differences between the SIHA and the BIHA had been “cleared up”. He immediately got in touch with “Pa” Kewley, the Scottish League representative in Canada and was, as a result, issued the following statement to clarify.
“Mr Claude Kewley, the Scottish representative in Canada, spoke on the transatlantic telephone on Thursday morning with Mr Festus Moffat, secretary of the Scottish Ice Hockey Association, concerning the statement which had appeared in the press to the effect that the Canadian Amateur Association would not transfer players to Scotland except such players who were registered by the British Ice Hockey Association. Mr Moffat was able to assure Mr Kewley that the Scottish Association had agreed to this procedure of registration. Mr Kewley stated that irrespective of the suggestion of a last minute hitch, all players signed for Scotland would sail within the next two weeks as arranged. Mr Kewley has full authority to take such steps as he considers expedient in Canada to protect Scottish interests in any emergency. Mr Moffat concluded by saying the Scottish public need have no fear about their ice hockey next season. All games will be played to schedule and Mr Kewley says the teams will be even faster and keener than last season.”
On a Thursday in mid-September at 10:10am to be precise, according to reports, a tall stranger with a decidedly Canadian accent appeared at Kirkcaldy Ice Rink and inquired at the office if Fife Flyers played at the stadium, the reply was naturally in the affirmative. It turned out to be Pat Good, the first arrival of Fife Flyers’ new team. Pat, it was learned, did not like to be called Pat, to his friends he was known as “Goodie”. He arrived at Liverpool on the Monday, caught a train to Cornwall to meet some friends and was quite unaware of the anxiety he had caused the management in Kirkcaldy with his disappearance. Goodie was a 19-year-old youngster from Kingston who started his career in the Midget League with Kingston Saints where he played two seasons before starting a team on his own which he named Flyers. It was as the result of the name "Flyers” that he became so keen to come to Kirkcaldy adding that as his own team had had such a good season he thought that it might be a good omen for his new club. Prior to appearing in the trials at Toronto he had played two seasons with Kingston Victorias and as a result he knew a number of the Flyers old and present players. A right defenceman, despite shooting left, with size and weight he was projected as a grand partner to Londry and together should be a formidable defence.
The following week the rest of the Flyers team had arrived. There were no fewer than six Kingston boys in the team, including Londry, Snider and Scrutton of last season’s line-up, while all the players hailed from Ontario.
Net minder - Murrel “Babe” Sholtz 23 years old, 5ft 7 in (Collingwood Juniors)
Defence - Bob Londry, Floyd Snider, Pat Good, (All from Kingston), Ross Hochberg 19 years old 5ft 10 in (Uxbridge Juniors)
Forwards - “Bud” Scrutton, Roy Hawkins (Kingston Vics - Center) 21 years 5ft 6 in, 10st, Ted Fowler (Kingston Vics left-wing) 19 years old 5ft 11in, Cliff Ryan (Toronto St Michael’s Buzzards – left-wing) 19 years old 5ft 8in 10st 5lbs, Bill Bradbury (Uxbridge Juniors - Centre) 19 years old 5ft 10in 11st 9lb, Leslie O’Rourke (Ex Royal Canadian Navy left-wing or center) 24 years old 5ft 7 in 11st
Ken Potts had not been released by Tulsa Oilers, the farm for the Toronto Maple Leafs. McCrone who was due to return decided to stay home after offers in Canada for his services.
The Flyers fortunes for the season were encapsulated within the opening week. They started the season without Scrutton who had arrived in Fife with his wrist already in plaster and it was then found that the bones had not knitted properly. Hochberg fractured his wrist when body checked in preseason practice and then in the closing minutes of their opening match Sholtz injured his wrist, played on and only when he was x-rayed afterwards was it confirmed he had a fracture. The Flyers secured Dan Deacon, a rent-a-goalie if you wish, as cover in nets and although all three players were back in action remarkably quickly the seasons fortunes appeared ill fated.
The Autumn Cup was introduced as a new competition, replacing the Scottish Flag Competition and the Flyers finished bottom on the new eight team set up, Glasgow Bruins being the new boys. The National League was played as an East and West Section, Flyers were 3rd with 24 pts in the East and so missed the playoffs with Dundee 42 and Dunfermline 31 points respectively progressing as eventual finalists. In the Canada Cup, Flyers won only two of their fourteen matches and finished dead last. The Scottish Cup was now contested as a two leg knock out and in the first round the Flyers overcame Ayr Raider 14-9 on aggregate thanks to a 10-5 home leg win. In the Semi Final against Falkirk they won 6-5 in the away leg but the damage was already done with the Lions thrashing them 12-2 at Kirkcaldy. However, there was a silver lining in the shape of the Flyers first cup in two seasons. The inaugural Silver Jubilee Cup was contested over two nights by Perth, Ayr and Fife.
The first 3 games at Kirkcaldy ended as follows;
Fife Flyers 1 Ayr Raiders 0, Perth Panthers 2 Ayr Raiders 0, Fife Flyers 2 Perth Panthers 2
The following night at Ayr the results were;
Ayr Raiders 0 Perth Panthers 0, Fife Flyers 3 Perth Panthers 2, Ayr Raiders 3 Fife Flyers 2
This meant the final standings
Fife Flyers 8 pts 11 goals
Perth Panthers 7 pts 10 goals
Ayr Raiders 3 pts 3 goals
Without being too dismissive, the Flyers had achieved being “best of the worst”.
One other notable event in the season was the inclusion of Bert Smith in the GB Olympic team. Three Scottish players were included in the line-up that travel to St Moritz on January 25th. Bert Smith was the leading scorer in the Kirkcaldy Junior team, Tuck Syme from Dunfermline and Frank Jardine from Glasgow Mohawks were the other Scots with J. Rolland, Dunfermline, first reserve. Team: Goal M. Simon (unattached); defence—G. Davey (Wembley Lions), T. Syme (Dunfermline), A. Green (Wembley Lions), F. Dunkelman (Harringay Greyhounds); forwards—J. Chappell (Brighton Tigers), J. Oxley (Wembley Lions), G. Baillie (Streatham), A. Stinchcombe (Streatham), F. Green (unattached), J. Murray (Wembley Lions), L. Baker (Brighton Tigers), B. Smith (Kirkcaldy), F. Jardine (Glasgow Mohawks). Reserves J. Rolland (Dunfermline) and D. Wilson (Streatham).
The Flyers were about to end the decade however as the dominant force in Scottish hockey.
The Flyers announced that only Scrutton and Snider would be retained for the 1948/49 season and there was great excitement that the top scoring centre Chick Mann was signing from bottom club Glasgow Bruins where he had tallied 63 goals and 64 assists. He had previously played all of his hockey for St Catherines up to Junior ‘A’ level.
Interesting to note that all of the Canadians playing in Scotland arrived en masse (with the exception of the Casey brothers who bound for the Lions missed the flight) and touched down at Prestwick at 11.15am after a 2 hour delay. The Flyers contingent had a tedious journey as they finally arrived in Kirkcaldy 7pm that night after the coach made calls at Ayr, Paisley, Falkirk and Dunfermline to drop the other newcomers at their various destinations.
‘Pete’ Belanger was Quebec born and played his youth hockey with the Junior Aces, he then dropped out to work in a papermill. Along came the war and he backstopped the RCAF in the Allan Cup losing in the semi-final. He then played for Drummondville and Kitchener before being selected to play in Scotland where last season he played for the Glasgow Bruins and in a number of Scottish Select games.
Harold “Hick” Moreland a 25 year old from Orillia was a natural right winger but would play on Flyers left wing and he knew Scotland quite well as during the war he had been stationed in Inverness when he was serving with Royal Canadian Engineers. He had intended to come to Scotland last season but a last-minute snag prevented him from doing so but while playing with one of Tulsa Oilers farm teams he had met Earl McCrone and through him contacted Mr Kewley who invited him to take part in the trials.
The Reid brothers from Oshawa, Bob a 23 year old 5ft 8in defenceman and Scotty who was the same height, a 24 year old left winger were certainly not going to be lonely in Scotland as they had a number of relations in Glasgow. Scotty had a girl in Greenock and although he had not seen the lassie they had been corresponding for quite some time and it was his intention to visit her as soon as possible. 70 years on and online dating hasn’t changed that much!
Verne Greger a 23 year old from Orillia, at 6ft was the tallest player in the team and played two seasons before at Streatham.
Ken Joy was a 5ft 9in 21 year old center from Kirkland Lake
Doug Smith was a 23 year old 5ft 8in defenceman from Espanola who won the North Shore Hockey league championship the previous season.
The format for the season was now becoming familiar. The Flyers opened with a couple of challenge matches against the Tigers and Raiders before starting the Autumn Cup. The Canada Cup then commenced and upon conclusion the National League got underway and the season ended with the Scottish Cup and minor trophy competitions.
The Flyers got their campaign off to the best possible start by picking up the first silverware of the season, the Airlie Cup for winning the Autumn Cup competition. They were pushed all the way by Falkirk with whom they split the home and away series but they kept their nerve as the final table read.
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Fife Flyers 12 9 2 1 75 40 19
Falkirk Lions 12 9 3 0 66 42 18
Paisley Pirates 12 6 5 1 68 67 13
Dundee Tigers 12 4 5 3 59 59 11
Dunfermline Vikings 12 5 6 1 57 61 11
Ayr Raiders 12 3 7 2 46 80 8
Perth Panthers 12 0 8 4 52 74 4
In the Canada Cup the Lions got some measure of revenge as the table below shows and it looked as though it would be a two way fight to secure the National League Championship.
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Falkirk Lions 12 10 2 0 84 44 20
Fife Flyers 12 8 3 1 68 54 17
Paisley Pirates 12 8 4 0 77 64 16
Dunfermline Vikings 12 5 7 0 59 63 10
Ayr Raiders 12 4 8 0 65 79 8
Perth Panthers 12 3 8 1 47 74 7
Dundee Tigers 12 3 9 0 53 75 6
A two way fight it did indeed turn out to be. The two were nip and tuck all season long and it came down to the Flyers final two games where they won 3-1 at Dunfermline and by virtue of the Thursday night fixture they played their final game ahead of the Lions knowing that a win over the Perth Panthers would secure the Coronation Trophy and be crowned National League champions. They duly delivered with a 7-1 win including a Mann hat trick.
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Fife Flyers 24 16 5 3 119 74 35
Falkirk Lions 24 17 7 0 152 91 34
Dunfermline Vikings 24 14 7 3 118 103 31
Paisley Pirates 24 10 11 3 137 137 23
Dundee Tigers 24 8 14 2 123 138 18
Perth Panthers 24 8 14 2 106 139 18
Ayr Raiders 24 3 18 3 103 176 9
The playoff round for the Anderson Trophy saw the Flyers meet the Vikings and the Lions played the Pirates. Flyers had lost Snider for up to 6 weeks with a knee injury in an earlier Scottish Cup game against the Vikings and it was an epic battle between the two Fife teams which after two games ended 10-10 on aggregate. The outcome would be a further two games in which he Vikings recorded a handsome 10-3 aggregate to advance but lose to the Lions.
The Lions also wrapped up the Scottish Cup honours when they pipped the Paisley Pirates by two points with the Flyers five points behind in 4th place.
Captain Bud Scrutton, in his 3rd year, became the first player to hit 100 goals in Scotland and topped the scoring charts with 107 goals and 81 assists for 188 points. He was pushed all the way though by Chick Mann who was runner up in the scoring charts with 91 goals and 94 assists for 185 points.
Flyers players were prominent in the end of season All Star awards with Snider, Mann and Scrutton selected to the ‘A’ Team and Belanger and Greger to the ‘B’ Team.
Al Rodgers who was voted the coach of the year the previous season interestingly was voted the ‘B’ coach of the year with his counterpart George McNeill from the Falkirk Lions voted the ‘A’ coach.
Unsurprisingly the Flyers moved quickly to secure the core of the team and reduce the turnover in personnel for the 1949/50 season. Belanger, Greger, Snider, Scrutton and Mann were all signed before the summer off season.
There were to be a major change in Scottish Ice Hockey for the forthcoming season. The much maligned “pooling system” was finally scrapped. It was essentially in place to try to establish a degree of parity between teams who were allocated players through the SIHA. Now teams would manage their own affairs but had to have a “fixed” team by mid December before the start of the National League competition. Until then clubs were allowed to make changes to their 12 man rosters which would include 9 Canadians and 3 local junior players. After the cut off date any replacement required would have to come from clubs in house junior players.
There was to be one major omission from the line up. No Bud Scrutton who decided that his future lay in North America and he decided to try out for the Chicago Blackhawks. He ended up playing the season in the Eastern Hockey League for the Grand Rapids Rockets. A familiar face however did return with Earl McCrone who had played the previous season with Detroit Jerry Lynch and Akron Americans in the international Hockey League.
The newcomers were:
Marshall Bentley - 5ft 8 in, 21 year old from Western Canada, a center who had played with Greger and McCrone and played with North Sydney Vics.
Ray Bouchard – 5ft 7in, a 20 year old forward who had played with Winnipeg Monarchs where he won the West Canada Championship.
Ames Brown – 22 year old utility player mixing right wing and defence, he played the previous season with Boston Olympics
Johnny Vanier – 24 year old right wing who was familiar to fans as one of the Paisley Pirates “Flying Frenchmen” from last season. He previously had played for the Canada Legion when they won the Northern Ontario playoffs.
The Flyers got the defence of their Autumn Cup title off to a shaky start with a 6-6 tie with Ayr Raiders at Kirkcaldy. Coach Rodgers had already seen enough and Bouchard and Brown were to be shipped home. This allowed Bert Smith more ice time and saw he return of the unsigned Scotty Reid. 30 year old defenceman Ray Dinardo was also recruited, he had previously played with Harringay Greyhounds.
At the halfway stage of the competition the Flyers were on target to repeat but then were shocked in Ayr by a 5-3 Raiders win, this opened the door for Dundee Tigers who stole the honours by a point thanks in the main to a stunning 12-6 win over the Flyers in Dundee in their final game.
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Dundee Tigers 12 9 3 0 77 55 18
Fife Flyers 12 8 3 1 68 54 17
Falkirk 12 6 5 1 57 50 13
Ayr Raiders 12 5 5 2 58 63 12
Dunfermline Vikings 12 4 5 3 54 47 11
Perth Panthers 12 3 8 1 51 73 7
Paisley Pirates 12 3 9 0 58 81 6
The Flyers quickly shrugged off the disappointment and won their first silverware of the season by landing the Canada Cup.
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Fife Flyers 12 9 2 1 67 40 19
Dunfermline Vikings 12 8 4 0 65 38 16
Dundee Tigers 12 5 5 2 61 57 12
Paisley Pirates 12 5 5 2 60 65 12
Falkirk Lions 12 4 6 2 43 59 10
Ayr Raiders 12 4 7 1 46 64 9
Perth Panthers 12 3 9 0 57 76 6
It was now on to the defence of their National League crown, could they become only the second team, after the Glasgow Mohawks in the mid 1930’s, to repeat?
There was a significant 6-3 win against Dunfermline in mid January. This was then reversed a month later when the Vikings ended a run of 16 consecutive home victories for the Flyers. The two Fife teams were going hammer and tongs for the title. The Flyers looked as though they would falter with a three game skid and only 8 points in 10 games but steadied the ship when they scraped past Paisley by an odd goal in 13 and hammered Ayr Raider 12-0. In the penultimate game of the season the Vikings drew level on points with the Flyers after a 3-1 home win over them. Perth Panthers would possibly decide the outcome of the Coronation Trophy as they played the Flyers at Kirkcaldy on the Thursday and two days later the Vikings in Perth. There was much angst towards the SIHA by Flyers who understood that their superior goals scored tally would see them win the cup in the event of both teams beating the Panthers. The SIHA insisted there would be a playoff if the teams were tied on points. The Flyers did their part by winning 10-4 and had to wait. Incredibly bottom of the table Panthers defeated the Vikings 4-3 so the trophy stayed in Kirkcaldy.
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Fife Flyers 24 15 7 2 128 80 32
Dunfermline Vikings 24 15 9 0 109 92 30
Paisley Pirates 24 13 9 2 116 104 28
Falkirk Lions 24 12 9 3 104 84 27
Ayr Raiders 24 10 13 1 100 125 21
Dundee Tigers 24 7 14 3 110 135 17
Perth Panthers 24 6 17 1 94 141 13
In the playoff for the Anderson Trophy the Flyers faced Paisley Pirates in the semi final and narrowly advanced 9-7 on aggregate to meet the Falkirk Lions. The Flyers won the opening game 4-1 at Kirkcaldy and looked good for the double but were stunned 6-1 by the Lions who retained their title.
There was a new league type tournament called the Association Cup which was only played for this season. The Flyers were well off the pace to Vikings the eventual winners. The Scottish Cup was replaced with a knock our format over two legs with the Flyers receiving a bye to meet Falkirk in the semi final. The Flyers won 11-8 on aggregate to then meet the Vikings in the final. A small measure of revenge for the west of Fife side who won 12-11 over the two legs.
Chick Mann was the scoring leader with 74 goals and 96 assists for 170 points, he pipped Dundee Tigers ‘Rookie of the Year’ George Sinfield by a single point.
Belanger, Snider and Mann all made the ‘A’ All Star team whilst Greger made the ‘B’ team.
Coach of the year was reversed from the previous season with Rodgers the ‘A’ winner and McNeill the ‘B’.
The Flyers left the decade riding the crest of a wave, were the troubles in Scottish hockey a thing of the past and would the 1950’s continue to see the obvious growth in the game? What do you think!
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watcher
Junior
Posts: 710
EIHL Team: Fife Flyers
NHL Team: Vancouver Canucks
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Post by watcher on Jul 14, 2019 16:48:02 GMT
Great read Rossco - looking forward to the next instalment! You'll probably have caught up with present history before a new player announcement!
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rossco
Junior
Posts: 543
EIHL Team: Fife Flyers
NHL Team: Detroit Red Wings
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Post by rossco on Jul 14, 2019 16:53:44 GMT
1950s
Season 1950-51
So the repeat Scottish National League Champion Flyers were “Flying” as the new decade started, quite literally as it turned out as concerns about a rail strike in Canada was reported. “Ice Men Will Fly to Beat Rail Strike” was the headline. The Canadian Railway strike caused the Scottish Ice Hockey Association to make extra transport arrangements for the eighty players being “imported” for the coming season. Many of the men lived thousands of miles west of Quebec, the sailing point, while others lived not quite so far away in the Eastern provinces, and buses and planes would now bring them to join the Empress of Scotland to sail to the UK. By mid-August only four of the seven Scottish clubs had completed their signings. Flyers fans were completely in the dark about the team they would be cheering on. “It had been some time since anyone at Kirkcaldy Ice Rink had heard from Coach Al Rogers apart from a brief note saying he had signed five players. Who they are or what position they will play is still a mystery and looks as if Canadian journalists will be the first solve it when they get team lists as the players board the boat”. And fans complain about the lack of news in the off season in modern times!
Rogers had already signed four players from the previous season - Belanger, Snider, Greger and Bentley which, if one counted the five players he was supposed to have signed in Canada, would leave one vacancy as the league maximum number of Canadians per team was set at ten.
In an effort to stimulate interest the Scottish Ice Hockey Association had made numerous changes in their 1950-51 programme. Undoubtedly the most controversial change was the extension the National League competition from a 24-game series to a 36-game series. Always a gruelling competition it had now developed into a "marathon." Stamina and consistency would be the deciding factors, and Flyers, if they were to retain the championship for the third successive season, would have to have a pretty dependable line-up. This season there was also to be no preliminary challenge series and the pipe-opener would be the Autumn Cup tournament. The Canada Cup competition, which immediately followed, would be split up into two separate parts to allow the National League series to be played straight through. There was also talk about additional teams. H.M. Stationary Office, which occupied the Edinburgh rink since 1939, was leaving in September and there was hope that an ice hockey team to represent the Edinburgh Rink could be in action at the Falkirk stadium during the coming winter. The Edinburgh rink expected to open for hockey before the New Year but Aberdeen had been refused a building permit and would not take part in the League this year.
“Until television is introduced Ice Hockey will not take its true place in Scotland.” This statement was made Mr Festus Moffat, Secretary of the Scottish Ice Hockey Association on the eve of the season. Mr Moffat said that in the recent ice hockey world championship games in London, public interest was stirred by means of television, and consequently large crowds attended most games. Continuing, he said that ice hockey was one of the few games which can picked up really well by television cameras and this was just what Scottish hockey needed to encourage spectators. Towards the end of last season attendances in most rinks were very poor and the fault lay mainly on the poor standard hockey provided. Dealing with this Mr Moffat said that scouts in Canada considered the game here was of a senior-junior class, but this had been seen to and a senior standard will be maintained this season. Indeed, the following question was asked “Is This Scottish Ice Hockey's Last Season?” - Fans, critics, players and coaches all over were practically unanimous that there must be a big improvement in the standard if the game is not to fold up and become a memory. Flyers had winning club last season, and yet support was falling away. The other rinks were the same and nobody’s going to suggest they will carry on when the money isn’t coming in. The place for the improvement was firstly in the standard and type of players brought across. Scottish fans have grown up and will no longer tolerate “rough-houses” and the goings on to which they have been subject in recent years. They want to see fast, heady hockey and since they pay the piper they have every right to call he tune.
Devaluation proved to a big handicap last year and it was difficult to induce good players to come to Scotland. More American clubs were formed and it was more profitable for a player to go America. Many of these teams broke up however during the season and this left the players idle, so it was quite a gamble in the American League. The Association, declared Mr Moffat. paid out £4500 to players in order to compensate their loss through devaluation, but were determined to secure good men from Canada even though transportation was up by 100 per cent, from what it was two seasons ago.
On the subject of wages a ‘ceiling’ £125 per week was allowed for each club for players’ wages. There was a basic wage of £8 per week for full-time home and imported players. Every club in the circuit would have ten senior players this year and discretionary bonuses would be paid out by the management in accordance to a player’s worth.
There would be three senior referees this season. Bert Gemmel, Dave Cross and Don Cumming—and they would be assisted by Bill Melville, ex-Dunfermline defenceman.
The Canadian Ice Hockey Association had introduced some new rules which the Scottish League adopted. Players or coaches who bang their sticks on the boards will immediately be penalised. A referees committee, consisting one representative from each rink, will deal with the offenders and will meet on weekday instead of a Sunday previously. The aim of the Association is to clean hockey and cut out the petty incidents which mar the game. Sounds a lot like DOPs doesn’t it. The only new rule to affect the playing ice was concerning the goal crease. The rule read; "There will a semi-circle in front of the net (partial circle) and shall be drawn out so that the crease shall (at all times) be 3ft. from the goal line.
With costs a concern, quality of imports an issue, public interest not creating the expected revenues the following piece on the Junior game in Scotland should really have been a red flag moment for the sport. Dr. McCabe, President of the SIHA spoke about Junior hockey and that it was a great pity two teams had opted to drop out, namely Dunfermline and Paisley. Junior hockey this year would be on a smaller scale, but the main trophies would be competed for and separate tournaments run for the teams who make a regular feature of weekly games. The juniors have taken a step back, said Dr. McCabe, but hoped they would be to the forefront again. “They used to look upon the time when the teams would consist of Scots only” he said, “but I still think this could be done and will done.” To illustrate this Dr. McCabe recalled the team of eight Scots and four Englishmen which attracted all the attention in the World Championships in London last year. Taking the Syme brothers as examples of Scots bred players he said that these players in particular captured the attention of the London sports writers and gave their team a much needed boost. Following the first two games, which Great Britain won, the Symes were inundated with offers go to Canada or to the Continent and become stars, but the crowning moment came when they defeated America by 4-0. In conclusion he said, “Any team which can go out and beat the Americans at any game is worthy of support.” Five years on from this point and these reflections would be wholly pertinent if not very poignant.
So the wraps came off the new Flyers line up and tired, after a weeks strenuous travelling, the small band of new recruits arrived at Kirkcaldy Ice Rink and quickly settled into their new quarters. The welcoming party which stood at the entrance to the Ice Rink was smaller than usual, due largely to the doubt which had prevailed as to when the players would arrive. They arrived by special bus from Prestwick and all said they had had very comfortable passage, but that it had proved to slightly monotonous. After a cursory glance at the Rink and their dressing rooms, all expressed satisfaction with their new surroundings. Asked for their impressions of Scotland, they said it surpassed their highest expectations. Only person to claim Scottish antecedents was 21-year-old Harold Young, who hails from Montreal. Nicknamed Pep.” Harold claimed his family once held titles and land in Scotland. He had a lot of visiting in front of him for he had several relations residing in Perth. Little did he know just how long that “visit” would last. He was no newcomer to British soil, although this was his initial visit to Scotland, as last season he was one of the stars the Earls Court Rangers. A right winger and right-hand shot. “Pep” weighed 165 lbs and stood 5ft 8inches. He has also played for the Junior Canadians and the Verdun Maple Leafs. Renewing old acquaintanceships with Marshall Bentley was Sherman Blair who was team mate of Bentley’s in the Spokane trials in Washington Sherman, aged 21, 5 ft 8 inches tall and turned the scales at 175 Ibs. His home town was Calgary, a left winger and left hand shot, played with the senior team of the famous Trail Smoke Eaters before he sustained fractures to his wrist and nose, and was sent to “recuperate" with the Calgary Meteors. He played with the Trail Smoke Eaters when they reached the finals the British Columbia League. Albert Campone (pronounced Camponie) was the “daddy” of the bunch, being the oldest at 22 years of age. From Prince George and weighing 150 lbs he was only 5 ft 6 inches but should prove a favourite with AI Rogers, as they both hailed from Saskatoon. A centre-ice he played last year with Kelowna Packers in the Senior ”A ” league. The player who attracted most attention on arrival was Harold (“Harry") Towns, whose home town was Oshawa. He was 5 ft 8 inches and 190 lbs. A defenceman and right hand shot Harry played last season with the Oshawa Juniors “B “ team. Last, but no means least, was Jimmy Burnett, another Oshawa lad who was playing his second visit to the country and remembered as a strong defenceman with the now defunct Glasgow Bruins during season 1947-48. Aged 21 years, he was 6ft and 200lbs. He played with an Oshawa team in the Mercantile league, and was an ex-teammate of goal-tender Pete Belanger. Most importantly he was making a fashion statement “Where large lapels on the coats of the Canadians were once the order of the day, Jimmy favours jackets without these embellishments”. Good to know but my primary question when researching was “Where did Chick Mann go ?” An answer I have yet to come up with, he appears to have disappeared off the hockey map.
Floyd Snider in his 4th season with the club was appointed Captain, Bert Smith and Jimmy Mitchell were also in the Flyers line up and on the eve of their first game at home against Ayr Raiders they signed 28 year old Lee Thorne who was previously with Brighton Tigers. The Flyers won their Autumn Cup opener 8-4. Flyers added Tommy Walker, a junior from Dunfermline Royals and won six of their seven opening games. At the conclusion of the Autumn Cup fixtures the table read:
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Ayr Raiders 12 7 3 2 68 51 16
Fife Flyers 12 7 3 2 59 46 16
Perth Panthers 12 7 5 0 63 56 14
Dunfermline Vikings 12 5 5 2 55 46 12
Falkirk Lions 12 5 6 1 46 43 11
Paisley Pirates 12 5 6 1 57 63 11
Dundee Tigers 12 2 10 0 32 75 4
Ayr and Fife played a tiebreaker series as they finished level on points as it had previously been decided that goal difference wouldn't count in such a situation. As a result, the two teams played a two-game total goal tiebreaker series. The Raiders looked as though they would take the title after winning 7-2 at home win in November but in the return at Kirkcaldy in February the Flyers incredibly levelled the aggregate 8-8 with a 6-1 win over a Raiders team on a seven game winning streak. A further two games were required, again the Raiders held a winning advantage after their home game, 7-3 but the Flyers powered to the title when they won 11-4 in Kirkcaldy in late April. A result all the more remarkable given the form that the team had shown since early February.
Before that however the Flyers made a decent start to the Canada Cup and were in with a chance before the break in November for the start of that National League. In the end the 3 game the following Spring could muster enough points as the table finished:
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Dunfermline Vikings 12 7 2 3 53 47 17
Falkirk Lions 12 7 5 0 51 40 14
Perth Panthers 12 6 4 2 51 46 14
Paisley Pirates 12 6 6 0 55 50 12
Fife Flyers 12 5 6 1 52 49 11
Dundee Tigers 12 4 6 2 40 48 10
Ayr Raiders 12 3 9 0 50 72 6
In the National league the Flyers were going for their 3rd championship in a row. They simply didn’t get going. Pep Young had been lost during Canada Cup action for the season with a cut leg, former players Scotty Reid and Hick Moreland came in to provide cover. Dinardo also returned to help shore up a line up that failed to say healthy. Flyers chances of retaining their title was by early March, after a run of eight straight losses, extremely slim and only if you were an eternal optimist. By the time they next won a game, a meaningless Canada Cup game against Falkirk Lions on 5th of April, they had succumbed to a mind numbing 15 defeats in a row!! The final table read:
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Paisley Pirates 36 23 10 3 202 139 49
Perth Panthers 36 20 12 4 151 123 44
Dunfermline Vikings 36 20 13 3 160 153 43
Falkirk Lions 36 16 15 5 135 135 37
Ayr Raiders 36 15 16 5 145 157 35
Fife Flyers 36 12 21 3 136 166 27
Dundee Tigers 36 6 25 5 110 166 17
On the back of that win against Falkirk they played the 2nd leg of the Scottish Cup Final against Paisley Pirates. They had triumphed 14-2 on aggregate over the Ayr Raiders in the first round, in the semi final they saw off the Falkirk Lions 16:6 over two games. In the first leg of the Final in Paisley the Flyers went down 6-3. Their return to form was underlined when they won 7-4 to level the tie 10-10 on aggregate. The trophy was to be decided by two 5 minute periods of over-time during which each team scored once. It would then go to sudden death where Paisley nicked it. A couple of nights later came that remarkable Autumn Cup win against Ayr.
To round of the season the Jubilee Trophy was won against the Dunfermline Vikings over two legs with the first leg at Kirkcaldy ending 13-1 in Flyers favour. There was some additional silverware in the shape of the Bairns Trophy, which was contested by the bottom three teams, after the following results: Dundee Tigers 5 Ayr Raiders 5 , Fife Flyers 8 Dundee Tigers 3, Fife Flyers 5 Ayr Raiders 1
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Fife Flyers 2 2 0 0 13 4 4
Ayr Raiders 2 0 1 1 6 10 1
Dundee Tigers 2 0 1 1 8 13 1
Season 1951/52
Following such a disappointing season it was not a great surprise that the Flyers roster underwent something of an overhaul in the off season. Last years’ captain Floyd Snider returned, the only ever-present in local post-war hockey and he was joined by Verne Greger the sole Flyers representative in AllStar honours last season when he made the “B” team. Archie Williams a dashing right winger who had joined the Flyers midway through las season would also return.
High scoring winger Sherman Blair decided a good paying job at home this winter was his best option and last season’s centre Marsh Bentley (who sadly passed away aged 90 a few weeks ago) who, the returning Rogers as coach, had hoped would be a certain starter didn’t return as he and his brother tended the crops on their farm back in Saskatchewan before he went on to play for Spokane.
Manager McGregor then pulled of what was considered one of the most sensational captures of the close season when he secured the services of Jack “Stubby’’ Mason, Wembley Lions international and last seasons’ All-Star “B’’ team netminder. Stubby who still enjoyed the reputation of being the finest netminder in Britain albeit a bit temperamental at times was noted for his brilliance and crowd-pleasing personality. Played three years with Wembley Monarchs, one with Wembley Lions and toured Scotland with the Bobby Giddens’ “Ice Hockey World” All Stars.
On the eve of the season the early assessment of the new look Flyers team was that they were a workmanlike bunch. “of all the Canadian ice hockey players who have crossed the Atlantic since the end of the war, the new Fife Flyers look the most workmanlike yet to come to Kirkcaldy. All of them have an efficiency and certainly don’t lack bulk. The players will make up one of the oldest and most experienced line-ups seen locally, and should bring back some of the glamour and thrills missing in recent years. As one wise-cracker put it, at least they can all skate!”
The other newcomers to the team were:
Fern Phillion - a rather short but well-built defenceman at 5ft 7in and 165 lbs. (almost 12 stone to the average Scot). A left hand shot and likely to hit hard and often. A swimming instructor during the summer months, he played in the Toronto Mercantile league last season. Was recruited on Johnny Vanier’s recommendation.
Al Brown played in Troy (Ohio. U.S.) last season. 5ft 11in and 180 lbs (which was considered tall and heavy!) a right hand shot he was put forward by Frank King.
Johnny Vanier who needs little introduction. Was with Pirates in 48-49 and joined Flyers in 49-50. Not a speed merchant nor a high-scoring winger but he skates hard both ways which is something very few fans appreciate. Now 27, Vanier was with the senior Sudbury Miners last season.
Joe Millison was the ‘baby’ of the team at 20, but looks like being big asset, 5ft 10in and 155 lbs. he is big right winger. He played with the senior B team New Toronto last season, was with St Michaels, the junior farm team for the Toronto Maple Leafs, for five years before that.
Johnny Pyryhora from Winnipeg has had plenty of experience in England and looks like putting it to good use in the centre. Was at Wembley a year before joining Nottingham Panthers for another two. 23, he is 5ft 10in and 178 lbs. His name (of Ukranian extraction) was pronounced Purr-a-hora
Frank Facto 25 years old a really hefty centre at 5ft 11in and 175 lbs. Like Brown, played at Troy (Ohio) last season and was recommended by Frank King. A right hand shot.
Mickie Linnell 29 year old left winger who had three seasons with the Swift Current Indians before joining Flyers
The referee circuit was to be enhanced with the arrival of Gordon Gerrard who officiated in the Toronto Major League last season and who would take charge of most of the games. Also in the pool were R Gemmel, D Cross and a couple of well known faces, Nels McCuaig and Harold Young!
The Flyers started their defence of the Autumn Cup with a 2-1 win at Dunfermline thanks to a double from Pyryhora but found themselves 8 goals down a few nights later at home to Perth Panthers before Pyryhora and Snider found the net again in an 8-2 loss. Only 2 points were earned in their next six games and they were winless at home in the competition when changes were made by the management team. Defenceman Phillion and right winger Brown were released. The Flyers attempted to attract Ray Dinardo back but failed. Bob Bergeron, ex-Ayr center helped out for a couple of weeks and was due to be heading to the south of France to coach Viege but signed on permanently with Phillion taking the job at Viege. The Flyers brought another ex-Ayr player Hal Kewley in who had an impressive points return last season. These changes helped pick their fortunes up but as the league table showed it was too little too late.
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Ayr Raiders 12 9 2 1 59 37 19
Falkirk Lions 12 8 3 1 64 42 17
Perth Panthers 12 6 6 0 55 54 12
Fife Flyers 12 4 6 2 36 48 10
Dundee Tigers 12 4 6 2 34 54 10
Paisley Pirates 12 4 7 1 56 67 9
Dunfermline Vikings 12 3 8 1 42 44 7
Decent form continued into the Canada Cup where the first stages were played from October 29th until December 1st but before the break in the competition they were on the slide again and too much work was required in the New Year to salvage the teams’ chances as the table finished:
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Falkirk Lions 12 9 3 0 62 38 18
Dundee Tigers 12 8 3 1 57 47 17
Ayr Raiders 12 8 4 0 73 40 16
Fife Flyers 12 6 6 0 41 47 12
Perth Panthers 12 4 5 3 53 61 11
Dunfermline Vikings 12 4 7 1 42 51 9
Paisley Pirates 12 0 11 1 47 91 1
The poor form from the Canada Cup continued into the start of the National League in December and in their opening two games the Flyers were shutout 4-0 at Falkirk before losing 4-2 at home the following night to Ayr Raiders to bring the slide to 4 successive defeats. Jim Szabo ex Brighton Tiger made a brief appearance in defence before moving on to Perth. A game against the Dundee Tigers scheduled in December was rearranged to accommodate the ice shows and when it was played in mid January the Flyers 3-2 loss was watched by less than a few hundred. Another sign that things were far from well in the sport. Don Mann , ex Wembley Lion, joined the team from the continent at the start of March and after a 700 mile trip made his debut that night against Ayr and almost inspired a Flyers win against the champions elect who won 2-1. The Flyers ended up the lowest scorers in the league and only Paisley shipped more goals as they slumped for the remainder of the season to eventually finish one place worse off than last season which meant they were in bottom spot!
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Ayr Raiders 36 24 9 3 170 111 51
Dundee Tigers 36 20 12 4 154 140 44
Falkirk Lions 36 19 14 3 166 138 41
Perth Panthers 36 16 17 3 164 166 35
Dunfermline Vikings 36 14 17 5 155 156 33
Paisley Pirates 36 10 21 5 139 197 25
Fife Flyers 36 9 22 5 129 169 23
The bottom two played for the Bairns Trophy and the Flyers retained the Trophy won for the first time last season with a 4-2 win at Kirkcaldy. In its inaugural season the Mirror of Merit was won by ‘Stubby’ Mason.
Season 1952/53
The summer of 1952 was a rocky one to say the least. It stated with the resignation of Rink Manager Edwin McGregor who had been in the post for one year but was a key person in the establishment of the game in Scotland over the last 15 or so years. It was stated that his departure was in no way connected to the speculation that hockey in Kirkcaldy was about to come to an end.
That summer rink shareholders were asked to vote whether to continue with the team and it took an extraordinary AGM to secure Flyers' future but only after much debate which culminated in several resignations. The issue came to a head when the rink directors voted to BACK the team during the slump, arguing that the ''boom and bust'' rollercoaster was ''part of a cycle that affects all sports.'' They pointed out hockey had carried the arena since its opening in 1938 until 1947 when attendances started to decline and were confident of a revival in fortunes. They claimed there had been ''an increase in revenue from ice hockey'' that year -- a claim that was to spark the row which almost led to the club folding.
Two directors, Archibald Dryburgh and Frank Hargreaves, went public with the facts which showed the opposite was true. They revealed gate receipts which topped £16,390 in 1947/48 had dropped to £15,000 in 1948/49 and £12,000 the following season ... and bottomed out at just £6,075 in 1950/51. It was estimated that the season just finished would see a loss of approximately £4000. They called for the chairman's resignation for ''failing to suspend a department which was showing a distinct financial loss and had been doing so for some time.'' In a statement to the Fife Free Press they added: ''We strongly advise the board to give up all participation in ice hockey as, by continuing, the ice rink company was most assuredly heading for financial disaster.''
In July the board withdrew its financial claims but in doing so ''emphatically'' pointed out it did not intend to mislead anyone. The matter finally went to the EGM on July 5 in the rink's Club Lounge with an 11.00 a.m. start. The Saturday morning gathering lasted two hours, and the motion to continue ice hockey gained the necessary three-quarters support of the shareholders. Imagine if internet forums and social media had existed back then !
Attention could now be turned to the on ice concerns and top of the list was finding a new coach to replace the departed Al Rogers who had requested an increase in wages (timing is everything) and was understandably denied so he returned to Canada. The Flyers only retained player was Verne Greger who could hardly walk at the end of the season due to a long term injury.
The league took what should have been a step forward with the eventual opening of the rink at Murrayfield. The structure having been completed in 1939 and but for the war it would have been operating as an ice rink for the past 13 years instead of a government logistics building.
The first signing for the new season was a goalie and one who arrived with the fanfare in the local paper “Flyers sign Former NHL Goalie” – Harry McQueston was the man recruited as a former Detroit Red Wing and Stanley Cup winner no less. I guess in those days there was no Elite Prospects website or YouTube video to validate someone’s CV but the truth behind McQueston’s pedigree didn’t quite match the headline. We’ll return to the full story at some point in the season. Other signings were:
Ron Biggar a defenceman from Western Ontario who had played with the Intermediate ‘A’ side the Goderitch Samis Pontiacs last season.
Bob Burns ex Dundee Tigers and Falkirk Lions defenceman who was recruited as player coach and was captain
Gordon Blackman a former Falkirk Lion a few years back but the 6ft plus defenceman had been playing with Bud Scrutton at Grand Rapids last season and was thought to be hugely more experienced than his previous stint in the country. In a “swap” scenario former Flyer Sherman Blair interestingly would be lining up for Falkirk this season
Marlowe McDonald a center who had played the last two seasons with the Flin Flon Bombers and came on the recommendation of Maple Leaf’s player Bob Davidson.
Nick Dubick a right wing, 6ft 200lbs who also played with Goderitch Samis Pontiacs and was said to have a high scoring average
Gillen Williamson 170lbs right wing who played in the Ontario Hockey League for Braysbridge
Alec Zubatiuk 6ft 170lbs rugged left wing from the East York Major league
Bud Stock 22 year old center who played in the new Toronto SeniorLeague
Scotty Dowle 19 year old center who played Junior ‘A’ hockey for St Katherine’s
Bert Smith and Jimmy Mitchell would also continue to turn out although Smith was lining up a move to a Dutch team Ijs Vogels of Amsterdam in December. Indeed Mitchell also had offers from the Continent but wanted to stay in Kirkcaldy although as a defenceman he was faced yet again with 3 imported players taking all of the regular spots. Marshall Bentley who the Flyers had been attempting to sign throughout the summer would eventually arrive in Kirkcaldy in late October, after missing his original sailing due to the harvest and would take the space vacated by Smith.
John Merril Wood was a last minute call off as was Gillen Williamson. There had been some rumblings of another war in Europe which had spooked some of the Canadian players considering playing in the UK.
Verner Greger was released to find another club back in Canada after spending the whole summer with his leg in plaster.
The Flyers played Dunfermline in a Challenge match and in what was described as the good old days with spectators still flooding in after the game had started the Flyers won 4-1 against a weakened Vikings squad. Maybe the dark hockey days of the summer in the town were going to be vanquished ? Four nights later in the return challenge game they went down 4-3.
The Autumn Cup would not be the curtain raiser for the season but was instead replaced by a Scottish Cup home and home series with all eight teams involved. An opening night defeat in Dundee 4-1 was followed by a 7-2 thrashing of the Panthers at Kirkcaldy. The Flyers couldn’t find any consistency and they closed their matches in the competition with a trip to Dunfermline who secured a point in the 1-1 draw that was enough to give them the cup on goal average from Dundee:
P W D L F A Pts
Dunfermline Vikings 14 9 2 3 59 41 20
Dundee Tigers 14 9 2 3 64 56 20
Falkirk Lions 14 9 1 4 46 43 19
Ayr Raiders 14 5 4 5 60 44 14
Fife Flyers 14 4 4 6 46 53 12
Paisley Pirates 14 5 0 9 62 71 10
Edinburgh Royals 14 3 3 8 57 62 9
Perth Panthers 14 3 2 9 68 92 8
The Canada Cup followed with the now customary two phase fixture list which meant that it didn’t end until after the completion of the National League games. An innovation was to be tried in the competition with games now being officiated by a referee and one linesman. The Flyers opened up their campaign with a fine 5-2 win in Murrayfield, one of only two they would secure before ending the competition in last place.
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Falkirk Lions 14 10 4 0 48 50 20
Ayr Raiders 14 9 5 0 62 39 18
Paisley Pirates 14 7 5 2 67 53 16
Edinburgh Royals 14 7 6 1 55 46 15
Perth Panthers 14 6 5 3 63 60 13
Dunfermline Vikings 14 5 7 2 41 48 12
Dundee Tigers 14 3 8 3 50 69 9
Fife Flyers 14 2 9 3 40 61 7
In the National League they struggled just as badly. Inevitable squad changes were made with the additions of Ed Williams from Toronto on defence and also from Toronto Don Clayton added to the forwards. Local lad Harry Pearson was introduced as was Len Smigel who had been with Falkirk earlier in the season and he replaced Blackman. 22 year Fred Kentner from the Toronto Senior Major League was advertised as a prolific scorer, this didn’t quite turn out.
In January the ''Kirkcaldy Times'' newspaper wrote: ''There is a regrettable lack of life about ice hockey these days. It wears a jaded look and the spectators cannot warm up the same enthusiasm which is a great pity for ice hockey is a game which could attract and maintain attention.''
That month saw a plan hatched to share gate receipts across teams in a bid to ease the financial load. If takings were more than £300 they were to be split, with the exception of Murrayfield who had 12 imports and only paid out if their revenue topped £325.
The Flyers 7-4 win against Dundee Tigers on 29th January was their first success in two years against their Tayside rivals.
By March it was, in the words of the Times ''zero hour'' for Flyers. Rink directors waited on news of another plan to replace the 50/50 split with contributions into a general pot which would then be used to subsidise the weaker teams. Flyers, ironically were one such club...
The SIHA went into discussions with W.B. George, president of the Canadian Amateur IHA and zero hour was put on hold. George did hit the nail on the head as he pinpointed local talent as the way forward. Flyers made their move and promptly cut their import quota to six and the crisis was temporarily weathered.
The Flyers got themselves off the bottom of the league, albeit on goal average, for the first time in the season in their second last game of the National league season, they did it in style with a 9-1 win over the Tigers who swapped places with them and that’s how it ended:
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Ayr Raiders 28 14 9 5 103 83 33
Dunfermline Vikings 28 14 9 5 106 86 33
Perth Panthers 28 15 11 2 106 94 32
Falkirk Lions 28 13 10 5 96 86 31
Paisley Pirates 28 12 13 3 112 115 27
Edinburgh Royals 28 12 14 2 88 92 26
Fife Flyers 28 8 15 5 79 100 21
Dundee Tigers 28 9 16 3 97 129 21
The bottom four teams went into the Airlie Trophy playoff. Edinburgh overcame Dundee 12-9 on aggregate and he Flyers managed to beat Paisley 6-4 at Kirkcaldy and 3-2 the following night to advance to the Final 9-6 on aggregate. The Final first leg was at Murrayfield and again the Flyers kept up their belated run of form to return with a 5-4 advantage. In the final game of the season at Kirkcaldy the Royals snatched a very late winner to tie the series at 9-9 and so an overtime period was required. Bert Smith and Zubatiuk were the Flyers scorers in OT to win the cup.
Bob Burns and Harry McQueston shared the Mirror of Merit award. Burns had been awarded the accolade at the final home game when a recording device measured the volume of the crowd who cheered for either him or McQueston and so Burns with the highest recording tied the seasons votes.
The cheering in Burns ears could hardly have abated when he announced that he was taking up the coaching position with Murrayfield Royals for the following season.
Season 1953/54
The summer presented yet another bump in the road for the stability of the sport. Mr Ian Stevenson announced that the final call had been made on the continuation of the Dunfermline Vikings. “Heavy costs” were the deciding factor. Whilst this was a regrettable outcome for the Flyers losing the ‘derby’ fixture it was hoped that some of the Vikings ice hockey enthusiasts would venture East to sustain their hockey needs.
The Flyers announced in August a new player coach in defenseman Ken Broughton. Broughton wouldn’t appear and coaching duties would fall on center Johnny (Doughboy) Dobos a former Galt junior ‘A’ and ‘B’ player who also played for Woodstock Warriors where he was a renowned playmaker. He had recently coached a representative team that included another three Flyers signings. Netminder Ron Collins who played previously for Simcoe Gunners in the Toronto Intermediate league, Jack Lane a right wing and 20 year old, 13 stone, left wing or center Lloyd Boomer both of whom had played Junior ‘B’ at Woodstock. 23 year old Acton, Ontario born Fred Kentner who had turned professional at 19 with the Easter United States league Washington D.C. club. Scotty Dowle one of the few bright spots from last term returned.
With Bert Smith being reinstated as a junior the Flyers had one space to fill and they offered Jim Fiddler from Falkirk Lions a trial as well as free agent **** Wolsherholme, both were short lived.
The Flyers opened their Autumn Cup campaign with a 9-6 home win against Dundee Tigers. ELEVEN consecutive defeats followed, including being ousted from the Scottish Cup by Ayr at home, and once again changes were being made. Bud Stock was announced as a returnee from last season but he wouldn’t make an appearance before December and 21 year old Jack Chicorski was recruited to shore up the defence. He had played for Brentford Redmen in the OHA Senior ‘A’ league as well as Bridgeshot Reds a senior ‘B’ outfit. They eventually won against Falkirk Lions in their final Autumn Cup match.
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Paisley Pirates 12 9 1 2 57 23 20
Perth Panthers 12 9 2 1 61 30 19
Falkirk Lions 12 6 5 1 37 33 13
Edinburgh Royals 12 6 5 1 38 44 13
Ayr Raiders 12 5 6 1 43 43 11
Dundee Tigers 12 2 10 0 38 71 4
Fife Flyers 12 2 10 0 33 63 4
Before the start of the Canada Cup campaign, Dobos was relieved of his coaching duties in favour of ex Vikings coach Henry Hayes following the lifting of his “sine-die” suspension by the SIHA. Scotty Reid returned to play his first game for over a year. The Canada Cup yielded only ONE victory in their final game against Falkirk Lions but before it ended the Flyers lost coach Hayes who was forced to honour the contract he had signed with a Swiss club before joining the Flyers. Lane, Chircoski and Boomer had all departed, only Collins, Fallowfield, Kentner and Dowle remained from the originally recruited team.
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Paisley Pirates 12 8 2 2 47 33 18
Falkirk Lions 12 8 3 1 50 27 17
Perth Panthers 12 8 4 0 53 46 16
Ayr Raiders 12 4 6 2 42 45 10
Edinburgh Royals 12 4 6 2 34 47 10
Dundee Tigers 12 4 7 1 55 61 9
Fife Flyers 12 1 9 2 34 56 4
Fallowfield acted as temporary coach to start the National League campaign before Floyd Snider returned to Kirkcaldy to fill the position. It started positively with a 6-6 draw with Dundee at home but the proverbial wheels fell off the following night in Paisley when they travelled with only 8 players and lost by their biggest ever margin, 17-2! Did Snider realise what he was returning to ?
In the next game Snider hit the ice and his influence in defence was obvious but despite this the Flyers lost 5-4 at Falkirk then 6-3 the following night at home against Ayr. Almost inexplicably having lost seven of their opening 8 games at the turn of the year went on a 5 game unbeaten run with 4 wins and a draw against Murrayfield in a match played at Dunfermline due to the Ice Show schedule in Edinburgh. It was enough to temporarily lift them into 3rd bottom position.
Temporary respite however as another horrendous run was started which would yield only one more victory (against Dundee) before the end of the season. As lowest scoring team in the league the club announced mid February that top scoring Scotty Dowle would leave the club to return home. The matter was resolved although he was effectively a free agent and played out the season “in the shop window”. Bert Smith was voted the Mirror of Merit winner after another close finish with Reid, Kentner and Fallowfield in the running.
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Paisley Pirates 36 27 5 4 181 83 58
Falkirk Lions 36 19 11 6 154 127 44
Perth Panthers 36 21 14 1 167 123 43
Edinburgh Royals 36 14 13 9 133 130 37
Ayr Raiders 36 15 18 3 153 164 33
Dundee Tigers 36 9 21 6 183 235 24
Fife Flyers 36 5 28 3 119 228 13
Where would the Flyers go now ? Well to a brand new league set up was the answer as the news had been announced in late February of a restructure of the game.
BRITISH LEAGUE IS HOCKEY'S BIG CHANCE – “ice hockey is to have a chance to regain the popularity it enjoyed in the immediate post-war years. A three-day conference of the members of the Scottish Ice Hockey Association held in Edinburgh decided that Scotland should join forces with England, and form a 12-club British League next winter- F. Ahearne, secretary the British Ice Hockey Association, which controls hockey England, was present the conference, as were representatives of the five Southern clubs—Brighton, Wembley, Harringay, Streatham and Nottingham. The 12-club British League was unanimously approved, despite the fact that several of the Scottish rinks had previously professed opposition. The Scottish clubs must have gained concessions, however, for a wage scale somewhere between these operating in the two Leagues at present was fixed. Each club was to be allowed only ten Canadians and two home bred players, which was a decided advantage to the Scots. Every club North the Border, with the possible exception of Murrayfield Royals iced two juniors at least close to the standard of the average Canadian—which was something the English teams did not. There were many points still to be decided but now the plan for all-Britain League had been approved in principle, hockey in Scotland was expected to get its biggest boost ever. Lack of variety in opposition was always a stumbling block even when the game’s popularity was at a peak. Now that should be a thing of the past and an uplifting of the standard of play should be automatic. The demand for hockey it was thought was still there. But it must be hockey of the right type. Given that and provided there is not too great a gap between the top and bottom clubs ice hockey can prosper again.
What could possibly go wrong ?
Season 1954/55
Goodbye Scottish Autumn Cup, Canada Cup and Scottish National league and hello British Autumn Cup and British National League.
Goodbye Streatham who were part of the original plan and hello again Dunfermline Vikings to make it an 8 Scottish and 4 English team set up.
Henry Hayes was back as coach, this time to stay it was hoped. The other recruits were:
Netminder: - Walter Malahoff from Kamloops 28 years old who played both Senior ‘A’ and Senior ‘B’ grades of hockey classified well above Scottish standard
Defence: - Fred Hall from Medicine Hat, Alberta, John Popenuik from Regina, Neil Matheson from Vancouver, 21 year old 5ft 11in played junior with Prince Albert.
Forwards:- Walter Davidson from Saskatoon, centre, 5ft 7in 22 year old who played juvenile and senior for Saskatoon Wesleys then Kerrobert Tigers in the Intermediate league last year. Nick Jost from Vancouver a right wing who played for the Championship winning Kanagan Valley last season, Johnny Andrews from Fort William, Ontario, 5ft 10in 21 years old a heavy-built, left hand shot, speedy right winger, who played for both Streatham and Ayr Raiders last season, Don Cox also from Fort William, a 20 year old 5ft 7in centreman who was rated the steadiest and hardest working member of the Fort William Hurricanes last season. Wayne Sutherland from Selkirk, Manitoba, 20 years old, 5ft 8in left wing or centre who was with Killarney Shamrocks in the Big Six Intermediate League.
On the eve of the season Flyers fortunes of the last few seasons showed no signs of turning for the better with the news that both Fred Hall and John Popenuik had reneged on their agreements and had signed contracts with Ayr and the Flyers were to launch a protest to the SIHA. Flyers however had not been "asleep" since they lost Hall and Popenuik and the Rink's general manager, Mr H. J. Wishart, confirmed that arrangements had been completed for another two defencemen to come to Kirkcaldy. There was a difference this time, however, Flyers have had too many misfortunes to take any chances and in Mr Wishart's words: "As it appears that players must sign an official form, no names can be given." That was hard luck on local ice hockey fans who were thirsting tor news of Flyers, but a sensible precaution in view of the unfortunate recent experiences. It turned out that one of the replacements was the popular defenceman Ed Williams who agreed to return to Fife but unfortunately there had been a sudden bereavement in his family and at the 11th hour he would ne be taking up his contract. Ken Johannson the former Streatham defenceman did join the club. Also due to join on a temporary basis was ex Paisley Pirates scoring sensation Bob Kelly, he then disappeared without reporting for duty. Can you make this stuff up? The team would be introduced onto the ice for the season by the march “Men with Wings”.
Ignoring the two challenge cup defeats home and away to the Falkirk Lions the Flyers opened their Autumn Cup campaign with a resounding 7-1 win against the Dunfermline Vikings at Kirkcaldy. 24 hours later they were hosed 11-0 in Paisley! A four game skid which included the visit of the Nottingham Panthers, who were the first English visitors to Kirkcaldy and who attracted the largest crowd for many years, was temporarily halted by a couple of wins including the Flyers visit south of the Border to meet Brighton Tigers.
Fife didn’t ice a full line up until the visit of the Wembley Lions on 9th November with Wilf ‘Nebby’ Thrasher and Ron Hemmerling making their debuts in a 4-1 win. ‘Nebby’ needed no introduction as he first appeared in the UK in season 1947/48 with Perth Panthers, then two seasons at Dunfermline, a season at Falkirk then a return to Dunfermline and he had been selected for All Star honours every season, a feat only matched by Floyd Snider. John Petry and Roger Landry had both been added to the defence a few weeks before. There was a bit more consistency in results but not enough to make a climb up the table. A surprise 7-3 win against Falkirk in the final couple of games was a spooky repeat of the previous season where the Lions were almost certainly denied the title due to a defeat in in Kirkcaldy:
GP W L T GF GA Pts
Harringay Racers 22 15 3 4 139 80 34
Falkirk Lions 22 13 5 4 119 72 30
Paisley Pirates 22 13 6 3 94 52 29
Edinburgh Royals 22 12 8 2 106 77 26
Ayr Raiders 22 10 10 2 108 100 22
Nottingham Panthers 22 9 9 4 111 95 22
Wembley Lions 22 9 10 3 91 102 21
Brighton Tigers 22 8 10 4 83 97 20
Perth Panthers 22 8 12 2 89 117 18
Fife Flyers 22 9 13 0 77 112 18
Dundee Tigers 22 7 12 3 82 118 17
Dunfermline Vikings 22 2 17 3 64 141 7
It would be 1967 before the Flyers would once again play in the Autumn Cup competition.
By mid-January the hapless Vikings decided to call it a day on their National League campaign with the games they played expunged from the record books. Flyers had yet to meet the Vikings and had only 2 wins from their 14 games played, astonishingly one of those was a 7-4 home success against the formidable Harringay Racers. The Flyers swooped to sign Vikings player-coach Henri Labrose to help the defence and goaltender Mike Luke.
In the 5-6 home loss to Wembley Lions at the end of January Cliff Ryan scored his 200th career goal for the visitors. The same Cliff Ryan who in 1947 had scored the first of those goals for the Flyers, he was presented with a puck to mark the occasion.
At the start of February with the whole team on two weeks notice the Nottingham Panthers were beaten 5-4 at Kirkcaldy. It did the trick as they went unbeaten for two weeks but were soon on the wrong end of scorelines again. They were also on the wrong end of the law as coach Hayes and Davidson were both fined at Perth Police Court at the end of February for their conduct in a game against the Panthers in Perth at the end of January where Hayes shouted and swore and behaved in a disorderly manner and Davidson challenged two policemen to a fight and committed a breach of the peace. There was a 14-2 shellacking at the end of March in Falkirk but the inconsistency of the team was highlighted by the fact they had also won their last five games at the Gallatown, some relief for the long suffering home fans but scant reward as the Flyers final league position shows:
GP W T L GF GA Pts
Harringay Racers 40 30 2 8 273 166 62
Nottingham Panthers 40 25 5 10 224 152 55
Paisley Pirates 40 24 4 12 200 143 52
Falkirk Lions 40 21 7 12 190 156 49
Wembley Lions 40 17 4 19 175 185 38
Edinburgh Royals 40 15 4 21 175 181 34
Perth Panthers 40 12 8 20 161 221 32
Brighton Tigers 40 13 6 21 200 209 32
Fife Flyers 40 13 3 24 150 215 29
Dundee Tigers 40 13 3 24 146 211 29
Ayr Raiders 40 11 6 23 168 223 28
‘Nebby’ Thrasher was presented with the Mirror of Merit following the 3-2 win in the last home game against Ayr Raiders. The following week an exhibition match between East Canada (with Flyers Luke, Thrasher, Domenico and Hayes) and West Canada (with Flyers Matheson and Sutherland), won 8-5 by the East was to take a more significant part in the history of the sport in the town than was hoped given the news that had broken the day before the match.
PROFESSIONAL ICE HOCKEY IN SCOTLAND IS ENDED - SIHA to Consider Amateur Set-up. The news that the Scottish ice Hockey Association decided to end professional ice hockey in Scotland was something that those who had followed the fortunes of the ice game in recent years were well prepared for. The only real surprise was that the decision was made so promptly. Knowing the ways of ice hockey legislators it was a more likely bet that series of meetings would be held before the towel was finally thrown in, but the very rapidity of the decision, and its finality, shows that the British League, far from solving any problems, had in fact brought to head a crisis that has been threatening the game up here for several years.
Season 1955/56 or lack of it
The gamble to merge the leagues and make the game a National competition had failed. The Flyers continued to struggle to gain any dominance in the game and the demise just along the road of the Vikings was obviously a matter that caused grave concern not to just Kirkcaldy Management but around the entire Scottish circuit.
In mid-summer came the somewhat inevitable news:
Following a meeting of directors, Mr H. J. Wishart, manager of Kirkcaldy Ice Rink, announced that there would definitely be no ice hockey at the Gallatown Stadium next season. Since the British League, upon which so many hopes were pinned, came to an end it was obvious that the ice game was faced with even greater difficulties than ever. While some optimists maintained that, in spite the failure of the British League, there would still be professional ice hockey in Scotland this coming season, the more sensible view was that it would either be a reversion to junior ice hockey or nothing. With Dunfermline out altogether, the rink being recently acquired by the Scottish Electricity Board and Paisley having intimated that they would team up in the English circuit, Murrayfield, Dundee, Kirkcaldy, Perth, Falkirk and Ayr were left with the possible inclusion of Crossmyloof (Glasgow), where the banner of junior ice hockey had been kept flying very commendably at a time when other rinks practically threw the junior game overboard and sought to flog professional hockey into life again. Dundee had already announced that they would not take part in any form of hockey at all and now Kirkcaldy would follow suit. Murrayfield were reported to be in pretty much the same position but at a special meeting of the Scottish Ice Hockey Association in Falkirk they were included in the list of five clubs who were to carry on ice hockey with junior players this coming season. The others in this five-club league were Perth, Ayr, Falkirk, and Crossmyloof. This decision to ice teams of Scottish boys with Canadian coaches was one that should have been made years ago. The position now was that Scottish players, once so plentiful, and so capable, were now a scarce commodity in most quarters, thanks to the policy import laden teams at a time when the Scots predominated in the British teams and were really going great guns. It had been reported more times than anyone cared to remember that no country ever had such magnificent opportunities with their home-bred players and then cut down their junior programme to a farcical level, thereby cutting off the source of supply of home-bred players. Had the juniors been encouraged as they ought to have been there were no doubts there would have been an eight-club Scottish League, bristling with home-bred talent and providing ice hockey fare of a high standard. However, what's done was done, and people were left to reflect on what might have been.
While the Dunfermline Rink had packed up altogether Mr Harry Wishart, manager of the Kirkcaldy Rink, who had brought about a big improvement during his tenure at the Gallatown Stadium, was quite confident that the Kirkcaldy Rink would achieve success through the other activities, namely curling, skating and dancing, which had been going well. As an ex-junior ice hockey player he was naturally disappointed that ice hockey would no longer be included in the schedule. Had professional ice hockey continued, Fife Flyers, for once, had the nucleus of a reasonably good team. Since ice hockey started in Kirkcaldy in season 1938-39 it has had many ups and downs, including the set-back of the war years. There was quite revival of interest in the early post-war years, when a sports-starved public, including returned Service personnel, flocked to the Rink as, indeed, they did to most places of entertainment, but as the enthusiasm began to wear off so, unfortunately, did the standard of play and once on the slide the game seldom looked like recovering its former prestige. Meantime, we can only say farewell to the ice pad, at least for the time being.
The hockey lights in the town were all but extinguished by the autumn and it was signed off by a heartfelt letter in the paper “ICE HOCKEY Sir, —At first glance at the title, one would be excused If they were to ask. '' What does it mean? Firstly, because the complete silence in the town concerning the game, more especially as this is the time when the excitement and enthusiasm were agog, and secondly because of the fact that there has been no statement forthcoming from the management at the Rink as to whether the decision of not having lice Hockey this season is a permanent or temporary one. If the decision was a temporary one pending an examination of the results from other rinks, as to whether there was a following for "Amateur Ice Hockey,” it would have been better had they made this known to the supporters who have aided the management in past seasons to keep Ice Hockey in Kirkcaldy. The supporters are also interested in the local talent which can be brought on with sound coaching. What about it Mr Wishart? You had hopes of bringing on the small boys last season, there were possibilities in some of the boys you had and it would be a pity to drop these practices. We would like to see these boys brought on under professional tuition. Then, if there any chance of Ice Hockey being played at the Kirkcaldy Rink in Season 1956-57 we would have a few players ready to into the Selection Box." This season it is the intention the Fife Flyers Supporters' Club Committee to function in a social capacity, with an occasional trip Paisley on a Friday evening, so that those interested can have a look at Senior Ice Hockey. We can only hope that next season will see a return of the senior game to Scotland and above all to Kirkcaldy. (Miss) Alison B. Campbell, Secretary. Fife Flyers Supporters' Club “
The ice pad was turned over to touring big bands -- stars of the calibre of Cleo Laine and Johnny Dankworth were visitors -- and there were sporadic games which occasionally mustered interest among locals, but the sport remained dormant until the 1960s.
In May 1958 Kirkcaldy Town Council discussed the purchase of the arena. The planning sub-committee studied the idea of turning it into a swimming pool, but the proposal didn't enjoy universal support. The idea of building a pool next to the rink also fell on stony ground.
The Scottish Amateur Ice Hockey League was formed for the 1955-56 season. Five teams participated in the league. The Falkirk Lions won the playoffs for the Scottish Cup with a 13-1 trouncing of the Edinburgh Royals. After one season of play, the league folded as the rink directors deemed there to be an insufficient number of teams for a viable competition to be staged.
Paisley soldiered on with Nottingham, Harringay, Wembley and Brighton in a National league until the sport literally came to an end in the country after the 1959/60 season.
What now ?
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rossco
Junior
Posts: 543
EIHL Team: Fife Flyers
NHL Team: Detroit Red Wings
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Post by rossco on Jul 14, 2019 16:57:02 GMT
1960's
1962/63 - Return of the Good Old Hockey Team
So, after seven years the team finally came back out of cold storage on October 14, 1962 to participate in the newly launched Scottish League which was a fully amateur league that was founded by eight teams for the 1962-63 season. This was the first ice hockey league to be formed in either England or Scotland since the demise of the British National League in 1960. For the past two seasons, only home tournaments had been played throughout Great Britain.
The league's first season consisted of eight teams playing an inter-locking schedule by mid-November when the league was reorganised into a section A: Ayr Rangers, Flyers and Murrayfield Royals and a Section B: Paisley Mohawks, Durham Wasps, Glasgow Flyers, Perth Blackhawks and new addition Paisley Vikings. Only section A teams had ice available for public games and it was hoped that the following season a full Scottish league would operate.
It was modest in its outlook but it gave the players a chance to lace up their skates. Flyers' first squad of the new decade did include some seasoned professionals. The Montreal-born Harold 'Pep' Young, who first iced for the team in 1950, was back on board as player-coach. Young was a seminal figure in the development of hockey in Fife. He was joined by Bert Smith, Jerry Hudson, Joe McIntosh and netminder John Pullar. Added to that list was defenceman Verne ‘Bones’ Greger, one of the most popular players of his time. Others who were in contention for the opening night line-up were on defence Bob Chalmers, Pete Robertson, Don Maxwell, J Maxwell, Bill Brown and forwards Tom Hutchison, J Watson, J Thomson, Andy Napier and Dave Cook.
A junior league was also to be introduced and the junior games would be played between the periods of the senior games – it was often accused that the demise of the game in the mid 1950’s was because the junior game (development) had been ignored.
The first junior Flyers squad had the following names: K Horne, B Greenhorn, E Grant, R Munson, P Grieve, J Hepburn, A Cowie, G Taylor, J Campbell, W Coventry, G Stevenson, D Cowie, J Hunter, A Bisset
Paisley were to provide the opposition in the first league game on October 28th but before then, Flyers slotted in a pre-season challenge with Ayr Rangers. The game also marked the revival of the ''Mirror of Merit'' the club's traditional player of the year award which continues to this day.
The Flyers beat the Rangers 5-3 with goals from Young 2, Cook, Hudson and Smith with Young being awarded the first Mirror of Merit award of season.
The report by Canuck in the Fife Free Press read as follows:
“Kirkcaldy ice rink rocked to the cheers of 1600 excited spectators when the Fife Flyers met the Ayr Rangers in the first game of the new ice hockey season on Sunday evening.
The crowd was treated to a clean fast-moving brand of ice hockey which has not been seen at the Kirkcaldy rink for many years. Both teams were out to provide a thrilling opening to the new season and in this they certainly succeeded.
The Flyers began to attack the Ayr net within the first few seconds but their shots were too hurried and goaltender Laird was able to deal with them without too much difficulty. As the Kirkcaldy forwards slowly began to settle the shooting took on a much more dangerous character and at times it looked as though the goal judge had erred. There were a number of close calls certainly but over-eagerness prevented the Kirkcaldy team from opening the scoring.
Led by the two McCallum brothers the West of Scotland team tested Johnny Pullar in the Kirkcaldy net with a few dangerous shots.
When the Ayrshire line lost Hughes for two minutes for elbowing it looked as if Kirkcaldy would break through.
The Ayr team put up a solid defence however and just after Hughes re-joined the line they opened the scoring through W Campbell in the 13th minute.
Johnny Pullar had left his net to smother a loose puck but it was flipped over his head to Campbell in front of the open goal.
Reeling from the quick goal the Flyers lapsed and Alex McCallum added to the Ayr total 30 seconds later.
Kirkcaldy had another golden opportunity when Archie McCallum received a two minute boarding penalty but failed to make the power play pay dividends.
The second period was perhaps the slowest period of the game but the Flyers played with more authority and cut the Ayr lead with a goal from Pep Young in the 12th minute. Young was assisted by Hudson.
Ayr had a chance to increase their lead when the Kirkcaldy line lost Dave Cook for two minutes on a tripping penalty but failed to breach the flyers defence.
The third period was the fastest and most exciting of the game. In this final session the Flyers really came into their own and completely outplayed their opponents.
Jerry Hudson equalised from Bert Smith in the fifth minute and Harold ‘Pep’ Young put the Kirkcaldy side ahead with an unassisted goal five minutes later.
Cook added another from a Napier assist in the 16th minute then the Ayrshire team made a last-ditch effort to regain their lost lead.
Archie McCallum led the rush and for a time even the Ayr defencemen were shooting at the Kirkcaldy net. Archie McCallum pulled one back for the Ayr team before the Kirkcaldy side turned on the power to demonstrate the fastest hockey of the night.
Bert Smith’s final goal of the game provided an exciting climax to a game which kept the spectators tense throughout.
Picking up the puck behind his own blueline he carried over centre ice leading the Flyers rush in a single handed effort. With two Ayr defencemen back checking he crossed the Ayr blue line and unleashed a tremendous drive which ended in the top left hand corner of the net. Laird didn’t have a chance of making a save.
Although Jerry Hudson Bert Smith and Dave Cook all turned in creditable performances the Fife Free Press Mirror of Merit for this week goes to the player/coach of the Flyers Harold Pep Young.
It will be remembered no doubt that it was Pep who came up with the two crucial goals when the Flyers were down 2-0. Young opened the scoring, breaking Lairds shutout and again when the score was tied it was Pep who broke the tie to put Kirkcaldy ahead. His whole performance gave confidence to the team
At the end of the first period with the Flyers down 2-0 I asked Pep what he thought about and the way the game was going and whether the opposition might be too strong. He replied “There are still two periods left. The game is not over by any means” That was his attitude throughout.
The manager of the team Mr Sandy Nicol said that he was “extremely pleased” with his teams’ performance in their first game and I think this just about sums up the opinion of almost everyone who was present”.
BlueLiners also noted: “If this match between Flyers and Ayr Rangers at Kirkcaldy Ice Rink on Sunday can be taken as any criterion then ice hockey is back in favour in Scotland.
Playing to a new generation of ice hockey fans the worlds fastest sport has a lot to offer and this Kirkcaldy line-up although of an amateur status played some extremely fast and intelligent hockey and considering that the majority of the players are home-bred the standard was encouragingly high.
The directoriate and management of Kirkcaldy Ice Rink deserve to be congratulated on resuscitating this spectacular sport and with a league now established the rink should once again become a popular rendezvous with ice hockey fans.
As a writer who has covered the sport in pre-war and post-war years in my opinion everything is in favour of a revival and now to a great extent it simply depends on the support of the public whether or not ice hockey can once again command a prominent spot in the sporting calendar”.
A fortnight later and the Flyers' opened with their first official game against the Paisley Mohawks at Kirkcaldy. Jerry Hudson had left to take up a player/coaching position in Vienna. Canadian Dave Johnston from Toronto who played Junior B for Lakeshore and Leeside was to debut. Another new signing, ex Falkirk Lion Johnny Bayne would alternate with Pullar in net. The gamed ended 3-3 with Young getting his second to tie the match. Cook also scored and Greger took the Mirror award.
It was announced that the Flyers had made an application to join the British Ice Hockey league – Southampton, Brighton, Durham, Ayr Paisley and Murrayfield - and they were determined to show their worth over the season in the amateur league. Were the Flyers getting ahead of themselves?
In their next outing they beat Perth Blackhawks 10-6 in Kirkcaldy, yet another newcomer, Danny McGeever (formerly with Falkirk Lions) was on target. Bayne played his first game as did Bill Nicol who was promoted from the junior Flyers. For the Blackhawks ex Flyer Jimmy Mitchell was on defence along with the future “Perth Line” forwards Sammy MacDonald, Ian Forbes and Jimmy Spence.
Murrayfield Royals inflicted the first defeat of the season, 3-1 in Edinburgh. Young resigned as coach due to business commitments but continued as player and Gregor took over coaching and returned Flyers on their winning ways, steering them to an 8-3 win over Durham Wasps at Kirkcaldy, Cook netted a hat trick.
A Challenge Game defeat, 3-1, to the Rangers away was followed by another 8-3 home win, this time the visitors were the Glasgow Flyers who had ex Flyers Canadian forward Scotty Reid in their ranks. Young netted a hat trick. On December 22nd there was a representative match in Ayr between a West of Scotland Select and an East of Scotland Select. Flyers Dave Cook, Danny McGeever, Andy Napier and Pete Robertson were included in the East Select that won 6-0. McGeever and Cook were then picked to play for the Scotland Select v Altrincham on Jan 11th.
The Royals visited Kirkcaldy on December 23rd and defeated the Flyers 4-3 with Young netting another triple. Perth Blackhawks were first foots in 1963 and the Flyers won 8-6. The following week, Jan 13th, the home game against Ayr Rangers was cancelled as their coach was caught in a snow drift, then a second bus had a puncture and then the petrol froze. Flyers were awarded the two points which brought them to within touching distance of their opponents at the top of the table. A select match was played featuring Flyers and promising youngsters with the score being; Blues 6 Yellows 5
McGeever was again picked for the Scottish Select to play Southampton and Brighton on 9 & 10 February. The Flyers title ambitions however suffered a significant blow against the Paisley Mohawks on Jan 27th. Despite the addition of newcomers Jimmy Spence and Ian Forbes they lost 8-6 at home. Paisley Vikings were then easily beaten 12-2 with Cook scoring four.
On Feb 17th the Flyers juniors played their first match against Murrayfield Royals in Edinburgh. The line-up was: J Bayne, M Crombie, G Taylor, B Greenhorn, T Hutchison C, Ken Horne, I Shields, D Pithie, P Grieve, Hugh Taylor, D Brown, J Hepburn, G Stevenson, D Cowie
Smith as captain and Spence were selected to play for GB in World Championships in Stockholm March 7-17, Spence eventually didn’t travel.
The Flyers league aspirations took another massive dent on Feb 17th as the Durham Wasps won 5-4 in Kirkcaldy.
The following Saturday an afternoon game was arranged against Murrayfield. As the big freeze continued to hit football it was requested by STV so they could film it and air it later that evening on Scotsport – this was the Flyers debut on TV but something they would grow accustomed to as the decade wore on. They won the game 5-4 and had Sammy McDonald as a guest from Altrincham. Murrayfield also guested Dorrie Boyle from Paisley. The McDonald, Forbes, Spence line was born with the latter two both notching doubles.
In their next outing in a Challenge game against Paisley Mohawks they won 10-3 with Spence 4, McDonald 4, Forbes 2 scoring, it was an understrength Paisley side but “The Perth Line” was really clicking.
With the Flyers needing assistance from others to get back in the league race they beat Glasgow Flyers 13-1 and at the same time Murrayfield beat Ayr 10-4, this opened the door for Flyers league chances and this win took them into first place albeit Ayr had three games in hand and were only 1 point in arrears.
McDonald couldn’t play in league games as he wasn’t registered and with Dave Cook back after a disciplinary ban they won 11-2 at home against the Rangers on March 24th which took the Flyers back to the top but the games in hand still favoured Ayr and despite finishing their season with a 12-1 win against Paisley Vikings the Rangers hit the top when they won 6-5 against the Mohawks and stayed there.
On Apr 7th the rink hosted a charity game versus a West of Scotland Select for Clive ‘Nipper’ Millard who was injured in an English league match for Brighton Tigers versus Murrayfield after skating into a goal post which resulted in him having to have his foot amputated. The Flyers won 5-3 but more importantly raised £60. The season ended with a match against the Edinburgh Royals for the revived Jubilee Cup. Flyers annexed the trophy with a 5-4 win with goals from McIntosh, Smith, Forbes 2, and Young. The winner of the Mirror of Merit for the season was Pep Young.
1963/64 - A League Title
The Flyers unsurprisingly had a number of returnees for the new season. Goalie Johnny Pullar, defencemen Verne Greger, Joe McIntosh and Pete Robertson. The Perth Line of Forbes, Spence and McDonald was now all fully signed up. Ian Forbes was the new coach, prior to joining the Flyers midway through the previous season he coached the Altrincham Aces of the British league. Bert Smith who captained the British amateur team last season, Pep Young and Andy Napier were also due to return. New additions included defenceman Bill Sneddon (voted defenceman of the year in the British League previous season) and Andy Williams both ex Murrayfield Royals. Ex Falkirk Lions goalie Roy Reid and ex-Perth Blackhawks Graeme ‘Pinky’ Farrell. Joe Baird also joined up formerly with Glasgow Dynamos. Six teams took part and were divided into two groups of three teams.
The season opener on Sunday 13th Oct was a Challenge Match against the Paisley Mohawks at Kirkcaldy in front of a crowd of more than 2000. Larry Marshall of STV’s One O’Clock Gang performed the puck drop. The Flyers won 5-0 with a Spence hat trick and a double from Baird.
Hockey was to be on BBC TV with the introduction of the Grandstand Trophy – six games from England and three from Scotland with teams competing for the trophy on a knockout basis.
There was also talk of a possible continental tour in the New Year. Sandy Nicol still team manager advised that it might be to play the Austrian Olympic Team in Innsbruck, Austria. There would then be follow on games including Italian opposition. This never materialised with the Flyers citing a busy schedule against the English teams which left them without practical dates. A Team from Paris was also slated to visit Kirkcaldy in the latter part of the season but that also fell through as they could not arrange a two game schedule to help support costs.
The Flyers in Section A along with Durham Wasps were to make a clean sweep of their league games. A Scottish Select side were beaten 11-4 on October 20th before league wins against last seasons’ League Champion Ayr Rangers 10-1, Glasgow Flyers 16-1 (McDonald with 6), Paisley Mohawks 5-0, Whitley Bay Warriors 10-3 and Durham Bees 4-2.
The undefeated run came to and end down south on the weekend of 23/24 November when they lost 8-4 at Wembley against the Lions and 9-4 against the Brighton Tigers. The Flyers were big draws as both games were sold out.
Normal service was resumed as the wins continued to be wracked up; Perth Blackhawks 13-2 (Laurie Lovell made his debut), Ayr Rangers 15-4 and 8-0, Glasgow Flyers 8-2 and then 19-1 in a game where goalie Charlie Huddlestone was said to have faced over 100 shots. Spence wrote his name into the record books with EIGHT goals and the Flyers scored four in 40 seconds which is possibly another record. By Christmas Spence already had 41 goals, Forbes 22 and McDonald 19.
A 5-3 win over the Durham Bees ended the year. The New Year started with another defeat to he Brighton Tigers, 5-3 with the travelling Flyers missing the Perth Line and no Roy Reid. Their dominance in league games continued however with wins against Perth Blackhawks 17-2, Durham Bees 3-1, Ayr Rangers 11-3 and to complete the clean sweep Paisley Mohawks 11-7.
Group A
GP W D L GF GA Pts
Fife Flyers 14 14 0 0 141 21 28
Durham Wasps 14 7 2 5 83 54 16
Ayr Rangers 14 4 2 8 48 85 10
Group B
GP W D L GF GA Pts
Paisley Mohawks 6 3 0 3 52 24 6
Perth Black Hawks 6 0 0 6 14 63 0
Glasgow Flyers 6 0 0 6 7 71 0
A visit to play the Altrincham Aces saw a 6-4 win then a home 6-6 draw with Brighton where more than 3000 packed the Gallatown Rink before they finally broke their duck against the Tigers with a 4-2 win on the road which broke the Tigers 19 game unbeaten run.
Another new piece of silverware which pretty much would become the sole possession of the Flyers in the coming years, the Skol Trophy was introduced. Also known as the Averages League the Flyers started it off with an 8-0 win against the Ayr Rangers, Roy Reid now had three shut outs on the season.
The Scottish League playoff final was next with the Group B winners, Paisley Mohawks, the opposition. The one-off game played at Kirkcaldy was said to be a drab affair with Spence opening the scoring with a shot from the center red line, Farrell, Forbes 2, Lovell and another from Spence saw the Flyers crowned League Champions with a 6-3 win.
The Glasgow Flyers were overcome 5-0 in the BBC Grandstand Trophy and the following week in the semi-final the Mohawks were once again put to the sword 6-2 to set up a final appearance against the Wembley Lions at Brighton in the final game of the season. The Flyers trailed 4-3 with 30 seconds remaining and pulled Roy Reid to set up an equaliser from Forbes. Unbelievably there was still time for a Fife winner when Sneddon won the cup with a goal two seconds from the buzzer.
The “Grand Slam” for the Flyers was concluded after further games against Altrincham Aces D4-4 and W8-5, Wembley Lions W9-2 and L3-4, Brighton Tigers L5-8, Durham Bees L3-9 and W9-0 (which was Roy Reid’s fifth shutout of the year and stood as a record until Stephen Murphy broke it with seven in 2007) and a shock 5-4 loss at home to Perth Blackhawks which ended the unbeaten home record of over 20 games. A win at home against the Brighton Tigers on 18th April would secure the Skol Trophy, goals from Young, McDonald 2, Farrell and Spence saw the Flyers win 5-3 and sweep all the competitions they entered.
Mirror of Merit winner was Roy Reid and top scorers were Spence with 84, Forbes 54 and McDonald 34.
Flyers featured heavily in the All-Star Team selections:
Team A: Glynne Thomas (Wembley), Art Hodgins (Wembley), Bill Sneddon (Fife), Sam McDonald (Fife), Ian Forbes (Fife), Jimmy Spence (Fife).
Coach of the Year: Ian Forbes (Fife)
1964/65 – Silverware continues
The season opened on 4th October with a challenge match against the Paisley Mohawks at Kirkcaldy. The Flyers team that won 7-6 showed a number of changes. Released were the two veterans Harold “Pep” Young and Verne “Bones” Greger, also gone was utility man Andy Williams who returned to Murrayfield Royals. These moves were made to conform to the SIHA ruling that each team must not sign more than five ex-national league players. Johnny Bayne who played two seasons was resigned to share goaltending duties with Roy Reid. Bob Church, a Canadian defenceman who had been signed in the summer was not going to appear and signed instead for Murrayfield. 21 year old, Dysart born Ian Shields was called up from the junior Flyers. The rest of the squad read: Defence, John Flynn, Billy Sneddon, Joe McIntosh, Dave McLaughlin, Forwards, Sammy McDonald, Jimmy Spence, Ian Forbes who remained as player-coach, Graeme Farrell, Bert Smith, Lawrie Lovell
The season saw only six teams participate after the Perth Blackhawks dropped out of the Scottish League.
In a season that was to yield yet another haul of silverware the road to those successes started as early as the 11th of October when the newly reformed Falkirk Lions rolled into Kirkcaldy and were soundly beaten 13-1 in the Directors Trophy. The trophy was donated by the Kirkcaldy Ice Rink directors for competition throughout the season amongst Scottish Teams. Falkirk had Jerry Hudson in their line-up, Spence top scored with five.
The following week the Flyers travelled to the south coast to play the Brighton Tigers in the Cobley Cup first. They were shocked by their English hosts who ran up an 11-2 win – reported as the biggest ever Flyers defeat and the small ice surface was considered a factor. Scots Jackie Dryburgh and Les Lovell each scored hat tricks for the Tigers.
The blip was forgotten the following week as they entertained the Ayr Rangers and Spence helped himself to seven in an 18-2 win. The wins kept on coming with a 6-2 road win against the Murrayfield Royals and then home successes against the Brighton Tigers 8-6, Durham Bees 9-8 and Murrayfield Royals 5-2.
A pair of wins in the STV trophy, Ayr Rangers 8-6 and Paisley Mohawks 6-4 saw the Flyers advance to the Final.
A couple of additions to the squad were made ahead of the Paisley Mohawks visit on the 29th November. Bill McNab a 20 year old Canadian from the Junior A Toronto Marlboroughs took over in goals from Roy Reid. Also signed was 18 year old Brian Batt from Toronto who played right wing or right defence. The Flyers winning streak continued with a 5-3 victory.
December 6th and the Glasgow Flyers were next to be put to the sword as the Flyers won 18-5. The scoreline was only 8-4 going into the 3rd period. Spence equalled his record for goals by a British born player in a game for the Flyers when he notched eight.
Either side of that date three Flyers, Jimmy Spence, Ian Forbes and ‘Pinky’ Farrell played for the GB Amateur side that beat France 8-2 at Wembley. Spence scored four with singles from Forbes and Farrell. The return a week later in France saw GB lose 3-2 with Joe McIntosh added to the Fife contingent but they had qualified for World Championships in Finland in March. When Murrayfield visited Kirkcaldy in February a collection was taken that enabled a set of strips to be purchased for the tournament. Spence, McDonald, Farrell and McIntosh all went but Forbes could not due to business commitments.
The STV trophy final would be against the Murrayfield Royals after they defeated Durham at Kirkcaldy and the following night in the return leg of the Cobley Cup the Flyers were once again downed by the Brighton Tigers, losing 7-5 (18-7 on aggregate)
December 19th saw the flyers secure their first silverware of the season. In the STV Trophy Final with a 2pm face off in Kirkcaldy the Murrayfield Royals were defeated 4-3 and Flyers were the first ever winners of the trophy in front of the STV cameras thanks to goals from Forbes, McDonald and a double by Farrell. The following night they played the Royals in the league and won 9-2. It was in bizarre circumstances as no sooner had a bus carrying the Murrayfield team entered the car park then another coach entered carrying the Durham Bees who according to their fixture list were due to play at Kirkcaldy. After some consultation they sent the Bees packing and played the Royals.
By late January Flyers topped the Scottish League Section A having lost only once in their 10 games. Murrayfield were second, Durham Bees and Ayr Rangers were not really in contention. Jimmy Spence was now on 60 goals for the season.
On January 23rd Flyers scored three in 25 seconds as they beat a Scottish Select 7-5. The game was hastily arranged as Brighton Tigers couldn’t get a flight North due to a strike at London airport
Spence scored for against the Durham Bees in a 5-2 win in a BBC Grandstand nationally televised game which saw the Flyers qualify to their old nemesis Brighton Tigers on Easter Monday in the Television Final. The following night they won 6-5 against the Bees in Durham.
Murrayfield visited Kirkcaldy on 13th February and inflicted the Flyers first loss at home to a Scottish side since the previous April when they won 7-5. It wasn’t enough however to stop the Flyers winning Section A to meet the winners of Section B for the Scottish Championship.
Section A
GP W D L GF GA Pts
Fife Flyers 14 12 0 2 124 62 24
Murrayfield Royals 18 11 0 7 99 75 18
Durham Wasps 13 7 0 6 103 55 14
Ayr Rangers 11 2 0 9 47 101 4
Section B
GP W D L GF GA Pts
Paisley Mohawks 7 3 0 4 35 26 6
Glasgow Flyers 7 0 0 7 9 98 0
The match at Kirkcaldy on March 21st was expected to be a formality for the Flyers but the Mohawks pulled off a major upset and gained revenge for their defeat by the Flyers in the corresponding playoff game 12 months earlier and were crowned Scottish Champions with a 7-5 win.
The season ended with the Flyers competing for three further trophies. The Skol Cup was retained after a 9-6 win against the Durham Bees on 4th April. The following weekend they went down 7-3 at home to the Brighton Tigers in the first leg of the Grandstand Trophy which they were defending. A second leg 2-2 draw down on the south coast saw them relinquish the trophy in their final game of the season. A couple of days before that the inaugural Directors Trophy remained in Kirkcaldy as the visiting Murrayfield Royals were defeated 5-4.
1965/66 – Not sure what to call this season ?
The Flyers would be guided by Jerry Hudson, the former Dunfermline Viking had returned from the continent and would take over as coach. Newcomers included Lawrie Spence, older brother of Jimmy who had played with the Murrayfield Royals and Perth Panthers and returning to Scottish hockey ex Falkirk Lion Tommy Paton who had been out of the game for the previous five years. The roster was: Roy Reid, Bill Sneddon, Joe McIntosh, Lawrie Spence, Andy Williams, Gordie Hughes, Bert Smith, Jimmy Spence, Sam McDonald, Jerry Hudson, Graeme Farrell, Lawrie Lovell, Joe Baird, Pep Young, Ian Shields
The Flyers would however be missing the prolific firepower of Jimmy Spence to start the season due to injury, Spence would eventually make a full return to the team in February!
For 1965-66, the Coca-Cola Championship, consisting of separate leagues comprised of English and Scottish teams, was set up. It was another classic UK hockey innovation that didn’t quite work the way it was planned. The league lasted one partial season before succumbing, more than half of the games in Section B of the league were not contested. There was a notional "Scottish League" featuring teams from Fife, Edinburgh, Paisley, Ayr, Durham, Brighton and Wembley. This competition may well have been connected to the Coca-Cola Championship, however there was no recognised Scottish League Champion but there was an award of the Coca Cola Trophy, can you guess who got their hands on it ?
The season got underway with the Skol Trophy which the Flyers were trying to retain for the 3rd successive year since its inception. The Paisley Mohawks were defeated 3-2.
Next up was the return of the STV Trophy series where the Murrayfield Royals were humbled 11-5 in front of the cameras and highlights of the match were shown nationally on the World of Sports programme on the Saturday afternoon of 2nd October.
Murrayfield returned a couple of weeks later and lost 5-4 in the Skol Cup and Durham Bees were beaten 3-1 in whatever the league set up was to become.
Those pesky Brighton Tigers made their first trip north on October 23rd and this time the Flyers came out with a win in an 8-3 victory but that there was an unusual backdrop to the match. The game started three hours later than scheduled and finished after midnight as the Brighton plane had been diverted to Glasgow due to fog. What looked like a capacity crowd had many queuing to get their money back and the rink management tried to put on an impromptu musical concert, it was almost 10pm by the time the Tigers arrived and by the time the game finished the rink was almost empty. Tigers who were homeless following the demolition of their Brighton Sports Stadium rink were ordered to complete all travel to Scotland in the future by train.
October 24th and the planned visit by the Ayr Rangers was replaced by a fixture against the Murrayfield Royals who lost 5-1 after Ayr failed to raise a team. The Rangers did visit Kirkcaldy a couple of weeks later and were thumped 13-2.
The game gave rise to the following article in the local paper:
“Ice hockey is growing in popularity in this part of Scotland and the rink at the Galatown is acquiring quite a reputation for staging some of the most exciting matches. However it is also acquiring a reputation it could well do without. Some of the language used by the players and being directed at the fans on occasion is downright objectionable and this is something which can do harm to the game.
Ice hockey is often described as the fastest game in the world and perhaps it is understandable that tempers become frayed in certain instances. Indeed, many fans do not think they have seen a good game unless there is the odd rough-house but surely there is no need for the language to get out of hand. It is only to be expected that the occasional word will slip out but there was an incident last weekend which was completely unnecessary. At one point there was a certain amount of interchange between a player and a fan which built up into rather an unsavoury verbal assault by the player concerned. Possibly the player felt he was being goaded by the fan but he would have done well to have remembered that there were many women within earshot and they should not have been subjected to such an incident. It is to be hoped this will not be repeated.”
Fifty plus years on ….. you decide.
The 6-2 win against the Paisley Mohawks on November 14th resulted in the Flyers qualifying to meet the Mohawks in the Paisley a fortnight later in the final of the six game challenge series arranged by promoter Peter Keenan.
Wins followed away to Ayr Rangers 9-1 and then home to Durham Bees 4-3.
The weekend of 27th/28th November saw the Flyers add two pieces of silverware to the cabinet. The Saturday night at home to Murrayfield Royals in the Skol Cup Final saw them retain their grip on the trophy for a third successive season. A 9-3 win with goals from Hudson 3, Forbes 3, Paton 2 and Lovell. The following night they travelled to Glasgow to play the Paisley Mohawks in the Coca Cola Challenge trophy. Goals from Smith 2, Forbes, Lovell saw reigning British light heavy weight champion Chick Calderwood present them the trophy after a 4-3 win.
Soon after Laurie Spence and Gordie Hughes were released – Hughes moved to Ayr and Spence Murrayfield. On the plus side however Ian Forbes, coach last season, returned as a player.
Flyers were on TV against defeating Murrayfield Royals 5-2 at Kirkcaldy in front of the TV cameras and the following night at home they won 8-3 against the Ayr Rangers who struggled again with a team and borrowed Watson and Medd from the junior Flyers as well as a couple of players from the HMS Ottawa touring team.
The Flyers entertained the Polish International Team on December 18th . The game was delayed by one hour as the visitors waited on the arrival of their equipment and Roman Podalanski introduced the Polish team, he played for Flyers in 1951. Roy Reid had been struggling with an injury and had was hospitalised after an operation so Murrayfield’s Willie Clark guested along with Penny from Ayr and Carlyle of Murrayfield. The Flyers lost 5-2.
On Christmas day Paisley Mohawks won 5-4, the Flyers first defeat of the season. The match again started 20 minutes later after the Mohawks were delated. The locals were becoming annoyed by the regularity of this.
Although Medd deputised for Reid who was to be out for rest of season after his operation and Stuart also played in net the Flyers needed an experienced stopper and John Pullar returned to play his first game in three years on Jan 8th against the Paisley Mohawks in a BBC Grandstand Trophy afternoon game. Flyers won 3-0. He then shutout Durham Bees 9-0 and the following week against the Brighton Tigers with 11 minutes to go the score was 4-0 to the Flyers. If Pullar managed a 3rd successive shutout it would be a British Record. The game ended in a 4-3 win for the Flyers.
Ayr Rangers once again couldn’t raise a team so Dave Medd, Hugh and Jimmy Taylor played from junior Flyers as the west coast side lost 10-2.
The last weekend in January was quite note able. On the Saturday the Paisley Mohawks were visitors in the final of the BBC Grandstand Trophy and they left victorious in a 4-1 win. It was said that Paisley didn’t resort to their normal rough house game and surprised the Flyers. The following night the b Flyers played host to the Murrayfield Royals and won handsomely 12-2. The result proved to be the last game played by the Edinburgh side who disbanded for the remainder of the season.
Dave Medd made his full Flyers debut appearance in defence on Feb 6th as the Paisley Mohawks proved that the game last weekend was no fluke and so there was no revenge for Flyers as they went down 6-5. The following weekend however Flyers returned to winning ways with a 6-2 win against the Mohawks in Glasgow.
Following the fallout in Edinburgh Flyers signed Willie Clark, Les Lovell brother of Lawrie and defenceman Glen Reilly who would of course be a well respected referee in these parts in later years. Another success against the nomadic Brighton Tigers, 8-4, was followed by wins against a Glasgow Select 11-3, the Wembley Lions 7-4 and the rest of Scotland 12-8
It was announced late February that Bert Smith would be retiring from competitive ice hockey – He played down in Altrincham, Wembley and Brighton when senior hockey packed up in Fife as well as three years on the content. Sam McDonald took over as captain. Smith couldn’t stay off the ie however and was back in 1966/67.
On Apr 9th they travelled to play a friendly against the Perth Blackhawks. This was Perth’s first game for many years and they hoped to return to the league soon. They had 5 Mohawks guesting for them but lost 6-3 to the Flyers.
The domestic season concluded over the weekends of Apr 10th and April 17th against the Paisley Mohawks. The first leg of the League Trophy Final at home was won 5-2 and the return leg ended in a 4-4 draw. The Flyers had become the first winners of the trophy sponsored by Coca Cola. Yet they already had a trophy from Coca Cola? All very confusing. Jerry Hudson won the Mirror of Merit award for the season.
1966/67 – Another New League Set Up
A new season a new league set up. The Northern League (known also as the Scottish League) was launched. The League developed out of the far more limited Scottish League, established in 1962 and which by 1965 a regular but limited schedule had been established. That summer the better British teams, mostly in Scotland, agreed to form a league to provide matches throughout the season. Initially, seven teams joined. The Spring Cup served as the Northern League playoffs but would not be contested in the inaugural season.
The Flyers opened the season on Oct 9th at home to the Durham Hornets and got off to a fine start with a 7-1 win. Bill Sneddon was player-coach and then became team Manager following Sandy Nicol’s resignation after four years in the job. The roster was: Roy Reid, Harry Young, Les Lovell, Bill Brown, Danny Brown, Bert Smith (who didn’t retire but played intermittently throughout the season), Jimmy Watson, John Taylor, Joe McIntosh, Kenny Horne, Dave Medd, M Crombie, Hugh Taylor, Andy Napier and Ian Shields
Signs were beginning to appear that the Flyers halcyon period of the last few years was about to come to an end. They travelled to Durham on October 24th and remarkably returned with a point following a 3-3 draw with only six skaters.
In the early part of the season though they put together some solid results, a 6-3 win at home to Ayr Bruins was followed by a 2-1 semi-final win in the BBC Grandstand Trophy against the Paisley Mohawks. The Flyers would meet the winners of the Wembley Lions v Perth Panthers semi-final at Kirkcaldy in January.
Jerry Hudson returned to the team but the team hit the skids as the year drew to a close. The reformed Murrayfield Royals won 5-2 at Kirkcaldy and this was followed by the Mohawks winning 5-3 at home and then a 6-1 win in Fife. Norrie Boreham came back out of retirement to help but the crowds were visibly disappearing. A 6-2 win at home against the Glasgow Dynamos arrested the slide and after an 8-5 win against the Durham Hornets Les Lovell Snr took over as coach after Sneddon resigned. There were no games over Christmas period and hockey came out of cold storage with the visit of the Wembley Lions on Jan 7th in the Final of the BBC Grandstand Trophy.
The Flyers shook of their recent poor form and surprised the 80 Lions travelling fans as they did a lot of their own support on how fine a game they played. Goals from Les Lovell 2 and Bert Smith secured a 3-2 win as they captured the trophy for the second time. Willie Clark, Johnny Carlyle, Eric Grieve, Freddie Wood, J Inglis and Pep Young all made appearances in a changed team that looked more like a Flyers/Racers select. The following night a clearly jaded Flyers side lost 5-3 to the Durham Hornets in Kirkcaldy. A 9-1 walloping from the Dynamos in Glasgow was followed up by a couple of large wins against Perth Blackhawks 13-1 (five for Boreham) and Ayr Bruins 14-4 (six for Boreham) and then a 3-2 win down at Whitley Bay.
Inexplicably the goals dried up and they surrendered a 2-1 game at home to the Glasgow Dynamos but the quality of hockey was at least pleasing to the crowd. Murrayfield Racers then won 8-2 before Roy Reid returned in a 6-3 win against the Perth Blackhawks. Perth had ex Flyers Forbes, McDonald, Farrell, John Flynn, Dave Ovenstone and Willie Clark – this wasn’t a convincing win.
The next week saw a convincing win but unsatisfactory for those in attendance. The Paisley Vikings came in with a played 20 lost 20 (although the Vikings had no home, the same as Perth Blackhawks and Dundee Rockets who were above them in the table) iced in all of their games for double points so they had actually only played 10 games. Only points, not goals were doubled though so Flyers got four points from their 21-1 mauling which left the Vikings with a record of goals for 4 and against 144. They turned up short of two players of which the netminder was one. It was speculated that if Flyers could score 21 what might one of the top sides do, it wasn’t a spectacle. Jim Taylor went in goal and another junior Flyer Drew Motion both helped out. The final league table, which saw an uncompleted schedule was:
GP W D L GF GA Pts
Paisley Mohawks 32 27 1 4 188 54 55
Murrayfield Racers 32 25 1 6 189 85 51
Glasgow Dynamos 30 19 1 10 161 106 43
Durham Wasps 30 16 3 11 142 111 35
Whitley Warriors 30 15 3 12 127 111 33
Fife Flyers 30 14 2 14 127 126 30
Ayr Bruins 32 6 3 23 66 180 15
Perth Blackhawks * 26 2 2 22 32 113 6
Paisley Vikings * 22 0 0 22 5 151 0
(* Perth and Paisley played all their games for 4 points each.)
After the final league game of the season Bert Smith was presented with Mirror of Merit.
The season was rounded of by a new competition, the Icy Smith Cup was a knockout tournament contested mostly by Northern League teams. In 1976, the Icy Smith Cup would become the national British Championship and saw teams from all leagues participate and the Flyers wouldn’t fare well in the competition until that time. In their first outing they lost 5-2 at home to the Glasgow Dynamos.
Retroactively, the tournament's played between 1966 and 1975 were recognized as serving as the British Championship during that time period.
1967/68 – the team was on the wane
Tommy Horne, father of Kenny was team manager and Joe McIntosh the British internationalist from Grangemouth was player/coach. Danny Brown, John Taylor and Ian Shields were to be the kid line for the season. Norrie Boreham, nicknamed the rocket and reputed to be one of the fastest wingers in the game returned as did Ian Forbes. Centre Les Lovell the former Edinburgh and Brighton and internationalist also joined. Joe Baird was ex Glasgow Dynamos who learned his hockey in Falkirk and the 2nd top points scorer last season. Kenny Horne a former junior Flyer now ready to do battle long with Dave Medd who like Horne was now gaining experience and both local lads had done well last season. In addition Bill Brown and Sammy McDonald said to be unpredictable but on his day the most polished wing in the country and another internationalist were in the line-up. The goalies would be Roy Reid former British internationalist from Falkirk and Jim Taylor the junior Flyers netminder. Bert Smith was still turning out and although Pep Young had hoped to play it would only be a few weeks into the season before he announced is retirement. Jimmy Spence resigned after a years absence from hockey due to work commitments but it was uncertain if he would get enough time to train and play.
An Autumn Cup competition was introduced with Home and Away games against Murrayfield, Glasgow Dynamos, Paisley Mohawks, Whitley Warriors and Durham Wasps.
Last seasons’ Northern Ice Hockey League was said to be experimental and that the standard of hockey was “disappointing”. Ayr, Dundee and Perth were asked to play in an intermediate league this year to help bring the standard of the Northern League up for the remaining six teams (as above).
The season opener was an Autumn Cup fixture at home against the Murrayfield Racers. The Lovell brothers opposed each other. Les and Lawrie matched each other with hat tricks but the Edinburgh side won 8-5 with the other Fife goals from Horne and Baird. Spence was missing.
A 6-2 loss against Paisley Mohawks in Glasgow was followed by a 15-6 win at home against Durham Wasps. Jim Taylor guested for the visitors in goal and John Taylor scored one against him. The club added two new signings, Peter Reilly and Mike Mazur.
There was then a run of defeats during which time Johnny Bayne was forced to deputise after a long absence from the game for the injured Reid. There were losses to Murrayfield 6-3, Paisley Mohawks 10-3 and Glasgow Dynamos 3-1 in the Autumn Cup and a 5-2 reversal to the Wembley Lions where Jimmy Mitchell suited up as he was now working in Coventry. Flyers were bottom of the Autumn Cup standings. A 2-2 draw away to Whitley Bay Warriors saw ‘Pinky’ Farrell rejoin the team but although he travelled he did not play due to an administrative error. The following weekend the Flyers got back on the win column when the Warriors were downed 12-7, Farrell did make his debut and notched two goals.
Flyers eventually finished 3rd in the Autumn Cup standings with Les Lovell setting the scoring pace with 19 goals, Joe Baird 11, Ian Forbes 8 and ‘Pinky’ Farrell 7 after only four games.
The Skol Trophy which possibly hadn’t been competed for the previous season was in the trophy cabinet again after a one off game against the Glasgow Dynamos. Goals from Lovell 2, Farrell 2, Horne, Forbes and Baird in a 7-4 win.
A public enquiry into the Kirkcaldy Town Council proposal to build old folks houses beside the rink was put on hold, there had long been debate about the access into the rink being unsuitable off Rosslyn Street and that Pottery street should be used and that an exchange of land between the Ice Rink and council could facilitate this. Decide for yourself how this all played out.
The Flyers hosted the Royal Canadian Air Force side “The Lahr Arrows” from Germany and Jan 20th. This was only the 2nd foreign side to appear at Kirkcaldy in the last ten years following the recent Polish National. The Flyers lost 8-4 with three guests, Inglis, Reilly and Lawrie Lovell from the Racers, Pecker scored one of the goals. There was talk afterwards of Flyers travelling to Germany to play a return match. This never did come to fruition.
On Jan 27th the Wembley Lions visited in the British Cup and won 4-2 in a match described as a disappointment after the exciting game the previous week with the Lions being an ageing and slow paced team but the Flyers couldn’t get out of the rut. The following night at Murrayfield with the Flyers behind 10-4 they walked off the ice minutes from the end of the game in protest at the standard of refereeing, 44 penalty minutes had been dished out Racers scored 4 in a 5 minute spell of which 3 were in the highly doubtful category with 2 from two line passes and the third where the clock had not ben started, at that stage the Racers were leading by a goal early in the 3rd period so it was as they same a game changer. Who said today’s rivalries have everything!
With winter Olympic coverage widespread on TV a large crowd was expected Sat 17th Feb for No3 Wing of the Royal Canadian Airforce the Zweibrucken Raiders – Verne Gregor refereed the game which the Flyers lost 3-2 and again Inglis, Reilly and Lovell guested along with leading scorer International center Bob Stevenson.
A run of wins in which Farrell was banging in the goals followed, Glasgow Dynamos 10-6 (Farrell 5), Whitley Bay Warriors 8-3 (Farrell 4) and again Whitley Warriors 9-6 and Paisley Mohawks 8-5 saw the team qualify for the post season Spring Cup playoffs by securing 2nd spot. What better way for Roy Reid’s final game to beat the league leaders with Johnny Bayne and Ian Nelson sharing duties for the remainder of the season. Paisley knocked the Flyers out of the Icy Smith Trophy in 6-2 before Whitley Bay Warriors were soundly beaten in the first leg of the playoff semi-final 12-7 at Kirkcaldy. The second leg the Flyers were made to rue the missed chances in the first game and crashed out after an 8-2 defeat.
The final game of the season was an 11-4 defeat away to the Wembley Lions, which was notable for George Beach scoring his 1000th goal. Paisley Mohawks were the undisputed kings winning all Northern league competitions whilst the Wembley Lions went unbeaten in their 11 games against the Northern League teams.
The junior Flyers signed off their 8 game season with a 4-3 win at Murrayfield with 4 wins 1 draw and 3 defeats
All Star selections were made and Joe McIntosh was on the A team defence with Les Lovell and Sam McDonald on the B team. Les Lovell won the Mirror of Merit and was leading scorer, Joe Baird was 2nd.
1968/69 – A season in the doldrums
October 5, 1968 marked the club's 30th anniversary and a move from Sunday to Saturday night for home games. The switch was seen as a gamble in some quarters, and it came at a time when the team was about to struggle badly. They started the season with a 9-8 home defeat at the hands of Whitley Warriors, despite leading 7-4 with just ten minutes to play. Joe McIntosh returned as coach again. Jim Taylor and Ian Nelson who was on loan from Glasgow Dynamos shared the nets. The team had been rocked however on the eve of the season when it was confirmed that top scoring Lovell would be going to Murrayfield stating that whilst he enjoyed his time at Fife the travelling was an issue for him. This however set alarm bells ringing around the league as such a signing could potentially make the Racers too big a powerhouse. The top line of Lovell-Baird-Boreham was a huge asset from last season. New signing George Pearson signed from Whitley Bay would take over Lovell’s role. The rest of the squad was Bill Brown, Dave Medd, Peter Reilly, Sam McDonald, Jimmy Hunter, Graeme Farrell, Norrie Boreham, Ian Shields, Joe Baird, Johnny Taylor, George Pearson and George Wylie
The juniors were to compete in the Northern Junior League and a junior coach to be appointed.
The Autumn Cup was proving to be a disaster, defeats mounted, Paisley Mohawks 8-4 and 12-3, Murrayfield Racers 12-3 with Lovell getting three. Only a last second goal from Baird got them a point in a 2-2 home draw against the Glasgow Dynamos.
A Challenge match against the Three Wing Flyers Royal Canadian Airforce side based in Germany managed by Gerry Walker was played on a Saturday afternoon and televised live on Grandstand despite Raith Rovers playing at home against Falkirk. Guests were Bob Stevenson Glasgow Dynamos, Paisley Mohawks duo Alistair and Billy Brennan and Jerry Hudson who had been coaching on the continent and they helped earn a 2-2 draw.
Following the recent defeats Tommy Horne made a plea to the Northern Ice Hockey committee to hold a special meeting and help the Flyers out by assigning a couple of experienced players in particular forwards as the team had become demoralised and there was a real chance that they would have to withdraw. Attendances were now very poor. He wanted the players graded to make the teams more equal – sort of like the old pooling system that the Flyers were unhappy about 20 years earlier. A week later and William Kerr the manager of Edinburgh and Tommy Horne agreed that Les Lovell would rejoin the Flyers, if it suited the player to do so. An amazing position to put the player in but Les remained in Edinburgh and the Flyers struggled on. On December 8th there was a much needed 10-8 home win against the Durham Wasps in what was a bottom of the table clash. It was far from a classic, likened by one spectator as a pantomime – Cinderella on Ice. The attendance was again very poor and once again Tommy Horne gave a foreboding warning that if things didn’t improve then hockey in the town could be ceased. It didn’t cease but it took until the 22nd of March for the Flyers to pick up their only win in the Northern League when they beat the second bottom Durham Wasps 8-4 at Kirkcaldy. Jimmy Jack made his debut against Glasgow Dynamos in January.
There was no awarding of the Mirror of Merit for the year.
1969/70 - Dejavu
The decade was to finish with a 10 team Northern League with the Edinburgh icing two teams the Racers and Royals as did Whitley Bay with the Warriors and Bandits who joined the Flyers, Dundee Rockets, Paisley Mohawks, Glasgow Dynamos, Ayr Bruins and Durham Wasps.
The team comprised of a much more youthful bunch: Jimmy Taylor, Kenny Horne, Dave Medd, J Simpson, Bill Brown (captain), George Pearson, Jimmy Hunter, Ian Shields, John Taylor, Rab Petrie, Angus Cargill, Jimmy Jack, A Dryburgh, Allan Crooks, Douglas Wilson, Hugh Taylor
The Autumn Cup yielded a couple of wins. There was the now customary exit from the Icy Smith Cup at the first time of asking when Dundee Rockets knocked them out, winning 4-2. The League campaign saw them finish bottom of the pile with the following record:
GP W D L GF GA Pts
18 2 3 13 63 118 7
Once again there was no Mirror of Merit award but better times were just around the corner into the new decade.
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rossco
Junior
Posts: 543
EIHL Team: Fife Flyers
NHL Team: Detroit Red Wings
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Post by rossco on Jul 14, 2019 17:01:44 GMT
1970's
It certainly was the case that the only way was up for the Flyers as they entered the 1970/71 SEASON. Les Lovell returned from over the Forth and Roy Reid was signed up in the net. There was an encouraging 8-1 shelling of the Dundee Rockets in the opening challenge match but once the Autumn Cup got underway it was the 7th of November before their first competitive win was recorded against the auld enemy Racers, 6-5 at Kirkcaldy. Despite this slow though it was considered that ice hockey, after a couple of seasons in the doldrums, was making a comeback both in Kirkcaldy and Scotland as a whole. The game was immensely popular a few seasons ago and it seemed that spectator interest was increasing again. Accordingly it was decided to revive the Fife Free Press Mirror of Merit – present holder from 1967/68 was Les Lovell. Joe Baird notched his 100th goal in the Northern League in the middle of November but the defeats kept coming, albeit it mostly single goal decisions.
Importantly however behind the scenes of the senior team Pep Young was working with the local youngsters to develop future Flyers. Some of the following names would be integral in the seasons ahead to lifting the Flyers to the top of the UK game: Tom Brown, Doug Latto, Stuart Winton, Brian Peat, Chic Cottrell, Willie Cottrell, Joe Ross, George Ramsay, Gordon Latto, Gordon Berturelli, Mike Boyle, Bill Mitchelston. Indeed in their 8-7 win at home against the Ayr Bruins on 2nd January the scoring summary read; Petrie 2, Baird 2, Lovell 2, Jack, Cottrell – proof of the Fife Flyers policy over the last two seasons of bringing along their young players had paid handsome dividends when they accounted for half of the total goals. Early signs that the team and hockey in general in Kirkcaldy was on the right tracks. The experienced players in the team were equally important and Lovell, McIntosh and Reid were selected for the GB’s World Championship team to play in Holland. Whilst they had finished joint bottom of the Autumn Cup table with 5 points from 12 games they had produced a more competitive second half of the season in the league and along the way ended the eventual Champion Racers unbeaten league run with a 5-4 win in Edinburgh. They finished 4th on 9 points from 10 games but despite qualifying for the Spring Cup playoffs they did not compete and 5th place Ayr took their spot. The Icy Smith Cup produced the now customary exit at the first time of asking when they lost 10-6 in the North East to Whitley Bay Warriors. There was some silverware with the capture of the home based Skol Trophy after an 8-3 win against the Bruins. This trophy would appear to be glued inside the Flyers trophy cabinet for the best part of the decade.
Les Lovell was presented with the Mirror of Merit by Bernard Stocks, editor of the Ice Hockey Herald Annual (1968-69 to 1972-73 and interestingly I managed to pick up a copy of one from that inaugural season just a few weeks ago). Chic Cottrell was then voted NIHA best young prospect – Rookie of the Year. Les Lovell made the first All Star team and Joe McIntosh the second.
For the 1971/72 SEASON the Flyers had to rely further on youth as the experienced trio of McIntosh, Baird and Reid all moved on to the Ayr Bruins. Three of the Taylor brothers appeared as regulars, Jim in goal along with George and John. In the Autumn Cup they team had still slender hopes of success going into the middle of November but then were dumped 10-2 at home by Dundee Rockets which ended any hopes, ex Flyers Jimmy Spence was the assassin with a nap hand that night. Just to run salt in the following night he also scored 4 in a 7-5 Rockets win in Dundee. The Flyers again ended the Racers unbeaten run and in doing so denied the Edinburgh side the Autumn Cup as they lost out by a point to Whitley Bay Warriors and in doing so just missed out on a Grand Slam. The Flyers Autumn Cup campaign ended with the following record: P 14 W 6 D 0 L 8 F 72 A 77 Pts 12
Petrie broke his arm in early January but the newly formed Kestrels were continuing to find their wings as they lost narrowly 8-7 to Glasgow Juniors: G Latto 2, D Latto 2, W Nicholson, G Ramsay, C Cottrell were the scorers. The Flyers first ever Icy Smith wins were recorded, a 5-4 success over Glasgow Dynamos then a 9-5 win over the Ayr Bruins put them into the final. They met the Racers over two legs and lost 9-3 at home and 9-2 in Edinburgh. These games were late in the season yet they had run the eventual Champions Racers close over the league campaign and finished a creditable fourth: P 14 W 8 D 2 L 4 F 82 A 67 Pts 18 Jimmy Hunter was the Mirror of Merit winner. Joe McIntosh who returned from Ayr mid-season was voted to the Second All Star Team.
SEASON 1972/73 saw Lawrie Lovell join his brother in Kirkcaldy, the seminal moment in the rebirth of the Flyers as a top team not just in Scotland but in the UK. Joe McIntosh tried his luck in Dundee and the Flyers had a 20 year old Canadian Bruce Libbos from Ontario in their ranks, he was a student studying in Edinburgh. The Kirkcaldy Kestrels took a bow in their inaugural season in the second league. The Autumn Cup campaign got of to a positive start with three wins, including a 15-1 hosing of Paisley with Libbos going nap and then a 4-4 tie with the Racers in Edinburgh. There followed an Icy Cup success against Dundee Rockets which saw the debut of Ally Brennan who had suffered a serious injury months before in a car crash but Fife were happy to give him a chance to rebuild his hockey career, what a move this was. The Flyers remained unbeaten in the Autumn Cup to win the trophy with a record of: P 12 W 10 D 2 L 0 F 114 A 58 Pts 22 In the last couple of games Bruce Libbos broke his ankle in a 16-3 win in Glasgow and the following week Les Lovell wrote himself into the record books when on 9th December he scored after only SIX seconds against Murrayfield, the fastest ever Flyers goal. In December the Kestrels recorded heir first ever league win, 9-4 against the Glasgow Red Wings and it was noted that Latto brothers Doug (15) and Gordon (14) were particularly prominent. The Racers were defeated 7-5 on 30th December as the Flyers retained the Skol Trophy. In the New Year the league campaign started with a 11-3 win over Glasgow with Canadians Bruce Wingfield and Ken McAuley in the line up. Brennan, Law Lovell and John Pullar were all selected for the GB Worlds team. The Flyers 15 game unbeaten run however came to an end when they crashed 5-3 in Whitley Bay but bounced back with another three victories and a 35-13 goal differential however during this run they lost Les Lovell with a cracked knee cap. On February 16th the Flyers were in continental action as they played a challenge game against The Hague. It should have been a mainly amateur side called Veronica 538 but the Flyers reputation of recent trophy wins saw the hosts bring in some assistance and they created an “All Star” team of 7 Canadians and an American goaltender – the match was played in a recently completed £2M rink used solely for hockey and the Flyers were gubbed 11-0. The team returned home an in a pivotal weekend they lost their unbeaten home record 8-7 to the Racers and the following night in Murrayfield they exited the Icy Smith Cup semi 7-3. On March 3rd they played a Scottish Select and lost 10-9 in a benefit match for Les Lovell but the following night in Dundee the Rockets laid a beating on the Flyers winning 15-2 – their Northern league hopes were in tatters. It didn’t help matters that they were missing their GB trio and this forced Pep Young to lace up again. They limped over the line, quite literally, Boreham fell and broke his arm with their final league record of: P 12 W 6 D 0 L 6 F 79 A 65 Pts 12 There was no Spring Cup for finishing fourth as only top two qualified. Norrie Boreham and Lawrie Lovell tied for Mirror of Merit and although there were no All Star Teams selected the NIHA awarded the Player of the Year to Ally Brennan and Goalie of the Year to Roy Reid.
The Flyers started the 1973/74 SEASON with four imports. Ian Ferguson a right wing from Ontario, Reggie Smith a centre from Alberta was studying in Edinburgh, Ken McAuley born in Canada but living in Boness and the return after his broken ankle of Bruce Libbos. The Autumn Cup was not contested and so the early part of the season comprised teams visiting in the Flyers Skol Trophy competition with the flyers mainly dominant and the Flyers reciprocating by travelling for other home team Cups. There was a 22-4 Icy Smith thrashing of Paisley who were without home ice nd hadn’t skated since April and after a stuttering start in the league the professional London Lions arrived in Kirkcaldy and gave the home side a lesson in a 10-1 win in what was dubbed the “fully professional Lions v enthusiastic amateurs”. By the turn of the New Year the |Flyers sat 2nd in the league table a point behind Whitley Bay who had a game in hand, Smith had returned to Canada to complete his university studies, ex referee Bruce Thomson made his debut for the Flyers but more seriously Law Lovell broke his nose and suffered facial injuries expected to keep him out for a while. A trip to Whitley Bay and a 12-4 trouncing pretty much ended the league hopes for the Flyers. The following week they trounced the Glasgow Dynamos 17-3 scoring 12 in the third period which was a then NIHA record for most goals in a period and finished third place in the league seven points behind the Champions Whitley Bay with the following record P 14 W 7 D 1 L 4 F 91 A 64 Pts 15
They bowed out of the Icy Smith Cup 14-4 to the Racers where Pecker Reilly scored an incredible TEN goals but then remarkably progressed to the Spring Cup final when they ousted the Warriors over two legs 14-11. The final against Dundee was to be over two legs but with no ice at Kirkcaldy it was played as a one-off game at Murrayfield on 21st April with the Rockets winning 7-4. The Skol Trophy was won by the Racers and there were losses in the Angus Cup final to the Rockets, the Northumbria Cup final to the Warriors and the Dunelm Cup final to the Durham Wasps. The Flyers trophy cabinet was bare but the Kestrels had had a very successful season as they annexed both the second league title and the Coca Cola Cup. Law Lovell won the Mirror of Merit.
Pep Young stepped down as coach due to business reasons for the start of SEASON 1974/75 and Law Lovell took charge as player-coach. Ally Brennan went back at Ayr, Dave Medd went abroad and Ken McAuley to Canada. Joe McIntosh had once again returned late last season, Jim Taylor owing to work would not be available until later in season, so John Pullar was signed. Jimmy Jack was voted most improved player last year and along with Chic Cottrell and the Latto brothers a lot was expected. The Flyers were still holders of the autumn Cup but got their defence off to a poor start going down 7-4 at home to the Rockets. They beat the Dynamos in Kirkcaldy 9-5 which was their 1st win in seven matches stretching back to last season and then saw off Durham Wasps at home who had only won once in Fife since 1966 and then gained revenge against the Rockets in Dundee with a 12-4 win which was their biggest home defeat. Whitley Warriors however won the crucial games and a split of points with the Racers meant a 3rd placed Autumn Cup finish behind both those two sides. There was a crucial 11-2 home loss to Whitley at the start of the league campaign and another reverse, 7-4 on the road to the Warriors in March pretty much bookended the league challenge which saw the Warriors take the title with only one defeat, the Flyers finished five behind and a point behind Murrayfield: P 14 W 10 D 1 L 3 F 84 A 65 Pts 21 The Racers won 6-5 in overtime to retain the Skol Trophy and also won their own Evening News Trophy winning 11-4 in Edinburgh. The Flyers qualified for the Spring Cup final by beating Whitley 4-2, the Final was held over to the following season due to lack of ice meaning another trophy less season. The Kestrels however retained the League but then walked off in the closing minutes of the final of the Coca Cola Cup in Edinburgh due to the refereeing decisions trailing 5-4. Les Lovell won the Mirror of Merit and Gordon Latto was awarded the Kestrels equivalent.
So the 1975/76 SEASON started with the return of Brennan but the departure of young Gordon Latto to Sweden to play in the Frolunda junior team and take up an apprentice joiners position. The first silverware of the season came in the first few weeks as the held over Spring Cup final against the Racers was won 15-6 over two legs. The team continued to be dominant throughout the Autumn Cup campaign but were chased all the way by the Durham Wasps with whom they split the points but the Flyers took the title on goal average P 12 W 9 D 1 L 2 F 114 A 60 Pts 19. A few days before Christmas Frolunda U21’s visited Kirkcaldy with Gordon Latto and won 10-1. The League campaign stuttered in the opening game when they Flyers lost 10-3 at Whitley Bay. There was a St Valentines Day massacre of Glasgow Dynamos 21-2 as the Flyers, Warriors and Racers battled for the top spot. An important 4-1 win against the Racers kept the momentum going but the Warriors came to Kirkcaldy a few weeks later and struck a decisive blow winning 7-6 in a match where Peat missed a penalty shot. Murrayfield were now in pole position and following an 8-8 tie at Durham where the Flyers were missing 5 regulars on GB World Cup duty the Racers 10-5 victory at Kirkcaldy the following weekend left the Flyers needing a miracle. It didn’t happen and they finished as runners up 1 point behind P 14 W 10 D 1 L 3 F 118 A 57 Pts 21 In the Spring Cup playoff semi final they demolished the Racers 16-7 over two legs and then went on to lift the trophy for the second time in a season when they beat Ayr Bruins 17-7 on aggregate with Law Lovell recording his 1000th point in the NIHA in the 2nd leg. The Bruins had shocked the Flyers 8-1 in the northern final of the Icy Smith final and had gone on to become British Champions by beating Streatham. Additional silverware was added with the Skol Cup returning after an 8-3 win against the Racers, the Angus Challenge Cup after an 8-3 win against Dundee Rockets and the Evening News Trophy after a 9-1 win in Edinburgh. Law Lovell won the Fair Play award and NIHA Coach of the Year, Jimmy Jack was Mirror of Merit winner and Kenny Horne most improved player but despite the haul of silverware and success the crowds at Kirkcaldy were not what they used to be despite now being arguably the best team in the country – and they would only get better. SEASON 1976/77 was essentially a repeat of the previous with the addition of the Northern League and British Championship titles to complete the Grand Slam. The records were:
Autumn Cup Northern League
P W D L F A Pts P W D L F A Pts
Fife Flyers 14 13 0 1 138 47 26 14 14 0 0 153 42 28
The only game they dropped points in was a road game against Durham Wasps on 20th March when with 5 regulars again missing on GB duty they went down 11-10 which ended a remarkable unbeaten run of 32 games. Other records were written in an absolutely dominant season when on 16th Jan they won 28-3 away to Paisley. It was the highest away win ever in NIHA, highest number of goals for, most in a single period (13 in 3rd), highest aggregate number of goals in a game and most scored over a weekend on consecutive nights by one team (40 as they beat Dundee 12-1 the previous night). On the 26th Feb the Toronto Airport Raiders were beaten 6-3 in front of a 2500 crowd, the biggest for 15 years and the first time in 12 years the Flyers had a bigger crowd than the Raith Rovers. Dundee were downed 11-4 in the Northern Final of the Icy Smith and the Flyers were crowned British Champions when they overwhelmed Southampton 27-11 on aggregate (18 in the away leg). The Spring Cup semi final against Racers was a tighter affair but Fife went to the final 10-7 on aggregate where they overcame Whitley Bay 22-14 to take the title and Grand Slam. Additional silverware in the shape of the Skol Trophy 8-1 v Dundee and Evening News Trophy 8-3 v Murrayfield was secured. The Mirror of Merit was won by Gordon Latto, Fair play to Law Lovell and Most Improved player to Brian Peat. Gordon Latto also won the NIHA player of the year award, Law Lovell the Coach of the Year and there were First team All Star selections for Kenny Horne, Ally Brennan and John Gibson.
Where could the team go now ? Well SEASON 1977/78 was always going to be a hard following act and they very nearly did it all again. Pullar left to play closer at home in Murrayfield, McIntosh finally hung em up. Billingham Bombers were the new kids in town and when Dundee Rockets dropped out on eve of season the Flyers moved quickly to sign Charlie Kinmond. The destination of the Autumn Cup was essentially decided over two weekends when the Racers won at home 4-2, their first derby win spanning 10 games over two years. The following weekend they beat the Flyers 7-5 in Kirkcaldy. The Flyers finished two points behind the Racers in a bid to retain their title for the 3rd year in a row: P 12 W 10 D 0 L 2 F 120 A 57 Pts 20 The Flyers picked up the Slapshot Trophy when they beat the Racers 3-1 in Murrayfield. The trophy was to help publicise the movie of that name that had just been released although there was no evidence of any Hanson or Ogie Ogilthorpe type action in the game. STV captured the game and highlights were shown on Scotsport on Boxing Day – oh the potential irony! There must be something of a record for the Kestrels who on Saturday November 26th played Canadian side HMSC Algon Quin, who were docked at Rosyth at 7.30 am and won 9-4, that evening they crushed Billingham Buccaneers 24-4 when 12 year old Craig Dickson got the last 10 minutes between the pipes and then went to Ayr on Sunday morning and won 6-0 – three games in a little over 24 hours. The Flyers were clearly still at the top pf their game in in the Norther League they got the netter of old foes the Warriors and Racers to take the title again by two points P 12 W 10 D 1 L 1 F 113 A 49 Pts 21 They once again advanced to the final of the Icy Smith after a 9-4 win over the Warriors and retained their British Champions crown by once again drubbing Southampton on a 23-5 aggregate. Les Lovell played his final ever game in the 2nd leg and scored. With the ice no longer available in Kirkcaldy the team withdrew from the Spring Cup playoffs not before retaining the Skol Cup with a 6-3 win over Racers. Gordon Latto was Mirror of Merit winner, Willie Cottrell Most Improved player and the Fairplay award went to Les Lovell.
The following SEASON 1978/79 the Flyers came mighty close again to success. The Autumn Cup was reshaped into a two qualifying sections and played later in the season to avoid a fixture crunch with the league. More Winter/Spring than Autumn Cup. The Flyers topped their section with Durham Wasps, Ayr Bruins and Sunderland Chiefs and met Whitley Bay Warriors in the semi-final which they won 14-9 over the two legs. The Racers were in no mood to relinquish their grip on the trophy and in what were essentially the final two games of the season they were also only two wins away from a Grand Slam. The Racers won the first leg in Edinburgh 4-3 and without any ice at Kirkcaldy the Flyers “Home” leg was played in Aviemore where the Racers were stunned by a rampant Fife side who won 12-4 to lift the trophy and crush the slam. The League title race with the Racers who dropped just the 1 point was determined pretty much on the Forth Derby games with the Flyers only two losses at the hands of the Racers P 12 W 10 D 0 L 2 F 89 A 56 Pts 20 In the Spring Cup the Flyers disposed of newcomers Billingham over two legs 20-15 and lost 7-6 on aggregate to the Racers in the Final. In the Icy Smith Cup the Flyers overcame Sunderland (Crowtree) and Glasgow to meet the Racers in the semi-final which they lost 5-2. NIHA awards were made to Gordon Latto Player of the Year and Ally Brennan Defenceman of the Year – they also both made the First All Star Team.
So as the decade drew to a close, SEASON 1979/80 saw the Flyers play second fiddle to the Racers again. Their 3rd place in the North Autumn Cup record was P 8 W 4 D 0 L 4 D 41 A 29 Pts 8. In the Northern League they finished 5th missing the Spring Cup playoffs with a record of
P 16 W 5 D 3 L 8 F 94 A 100 Pts 13. In the Icy Smith Ayr and Whitley were both beaten on the way to another semi final defeat by the Racers. Gordon Latto still made the First All Star Team but the Racers were the dominant force heading into the 1980’s!
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rossco
Junior
Posts: 543
EIHL Team: Fife Flyers
NHL Team: Detroit Red Wings
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Post by rossco on Jul 14, 2019 17:03:36 GMT
1980's
The Flyers who had been firmly in the shadows of bitter rivals Murrayfield Racers for the last few years looked to some new faces for season 1980/81 to revive their fortunes. Canadians Steve Graham, Tony Sgro and Jim Lynch joined the ever improving local youth movement and also John Pullar who returned from Murrayfield and Dundonian Charlie Kinmond. Law Lovell remained player-coach. Graham would be gone after two games and Sgro would last only eight games. Toronto born Jim Lynch was embarking upon a two decade association with the game in this country. A new rink floor was installed over the summer months which meant that the team had almost no on ice training ahead of their opening game against Dundee Rockets. They did warm up with a 14-3 win against Aviemore the weekend before and optimism was high when a crowd of almost 2000 saw them win the Skol Cup opener 13-7 against the Rockets. The following week a 13-5 hosing of Ayr Bruins at Kirkcaldy and then their first test against Murrayfield. In the space of 4 weekends they lost to the Racers 6-3 and 12-1 at home and 7-2 in Edinburgh and also succumbed 12-10 to the Billingham Bombers. So much for competing with the auld enemy. In mid November Law Lovell was relieved of his coaching duties and it was a to be decided if he would remain as a player. He didn’t after a wrangle to get his release. Bill Sneddon took over behind the bench. At the same time there was another new arrival at the club, a certain “Mabel” – the clubs new £12,000 zamboni meaning the end to the army of scrapers who skated up and down to clean the ice. Mabel would make a name for herself in later years but that’s for another day. Results took an upward turn in December following the signing of Neil McKay and Steve Crummey, both of whom had earlier played for Aviemore Blackhawks. McKay was an Edinburgh lad who had moved to Canada in his youth. Five wins on the spin was halted in the New Year when they crashed in Billingham 10-5 to the Bombers. A crunching 16-2 win at home against Durham Wasps was followed by yet another defeat at the hands of the Racers. By the end of January crowds had fallen away dramatically and typically they were somewhere between the 600-800 mark. There was further turmoil when Sneddon stepped down from coach after a 2-2 draw in Glasgow where he had waded into the Fife faithful to engage in what was described as a “heated exchange”. Kenny Horne took over as caretaker coach. There was no separate Autumn Cup competition this season with the winners being the best placed team in the league at the halfway stage which was Murrayfield. In the league the Flyers were battling for 3rd place to gain a Spring Cup playoff berth. They eventually finished with a record of P 28 W 15 D 2 L 11 F 231 A 145 Pts 32 a point behind Durham Wasps in fourth and were rewarded with a semi final meeting with the Racers. Murrayfield had recorded further victories in the Icy Smith semi final 8-3, Radio Forth Trophy 9-8 on aggregate and had won the Skol Trophy with a 11-1 win in Kirkcaldy. The Edinburgh side won both legs 7-5 and 9-3 on their way to meet Billingham in the final (which was never contested).
A new coach was on board for season 1981/82, Swede Ake Alm, who had coached in Edinburgh and the previous couple of years in Liverpool. His player profile in the first programme of the season had an interesting comment: Miscellaneous Dislikes – “Poor standard of refereeing in Scotland and getting up in the morning!” Young Andy Donald would share netminding duties with John Pullar and the season would start with the rest of the roster home based. The opening weekend saw a 5-4 home loss to Glasgow Dynamos followed 24 hours later by a 10-2 demolition in Edinburgh from the Racers in a game that saw the debut of some 14 year old kid called Tony Hand. Then it happened, 26th September with Jim Lynch back in the line-up the Racers came to Kirkcaldy and were beaten 5-2 with a hat trick from Andy ‘Linky’ Linton and goals from Allan ‘Bean’ Anderson and Lynch. The Flyers first win in 18 games going back over two years. The next again weekend the emerging Dundee Rockets roasted their Fife opponents 13-1 in Fife and 14-2 in Dundee. Charlie Kinmond quit his five year association with Fife and high tailed it back over the Tay Bridge. Results remained up and down on a weekly basis, routinely Ayr and Glasgow were beaten but there were some big scores against when they met the Racers and Rockets. Before the year was out the Northern Ice Hockey League had collapsed “through financial and administrative difficulties” Teams decided to limp on though through a committee – a new “Super League” was to be formed from next season. Where have we heard stuff like this before? Linton and Abel both left in February to try their luck south of the border for the Nottingham Panthers. The Northern Autumn Cup was run for the last time on a knockout basis with the Flyers beating Glasgow but losing against Durham in the semi-final. The Icy Smith similarly was contested for the last time but did not feature Fife. They finished third in the league with a record of P 14 W 8 D 0 L 6 F79 A85 Pts 16 and once again met Murrayfield in the Spring Cup semi-final. In a couple of competitive encounters they bowed out 3-2 and 4-1 although Murrayfield’s crown was now firmly in the possession of the league winning Dundee Rockets who took the final 24:6 on aggregate on their way to becoming British Champions. The 1982/83 season was the inaugural season of the British Hockey League. Fifteen teams from the Northern League, English League North and the English League South took part. The league was divided into three sections of five teams. Teams in section B played every team once at home and once away while teams in section A and C played teams in their own section four times and the teams from section B twice. Teams in section A did not play teams from section C. This meant that while section A and C teams played 26 games, section B teams played 28. Everyone got that?
Flyers were in Section A along with Dundee, Murrayfield, Glasgow and Ayr – sort of like a modern-day Gardiner Conference perhaps? Alm retired from playing to concentrate on coaching from behind the bench. Jim Lynch returned as captain and the Flyers first ever American player was recruited in the shape of 21 year old Detroit born Gordon McDougall who would fire 5 goals in his debut against Glasgow Dynamos. He was joined by 21 year old Albertan Chris Reynolds. One notable absentee in the line up was that of Gordon Latto who moved north to join the resurgent Dundee Rockets who won their first encounter 16-1 at Kirkcaldy, a record defeat at home for the Flyers. There were early injuries to contend with, Jim Lynch, Chris Reynolds and Rab Petrie were lost and the Flyers moved to sign 19 year old Kelly Sproxton from Flin Flon Manitoba, who had travelled with Reynolds, to fill the gaps. Andy Donald made his full debut in a 9-5 win against Ayr on 9th October. Further injuries when McLellan broke his arm and Horne fractured his arm left the squad threadbare to say the least but it was bolstered by the return from Dundee of Gordon Latto. Sproxton was gone by the end of October after Lynch returned. Dundee were once again proving almost invincible but were being pushed hard by Murrayfield whilst the Flyers were clearly no match for those two they were much better than Glasgow and Ayr and so sat third in the Section A table. There were precious few highlights in the season, a 7-7 tie in Edinburgh in January and a first win by a Scottish team in Nottingham in February with new recruit Canadian Charlie Brown scoring. The Flyers completed their league games ahead of all of the other teams and played challenge games for most of the months of March and April. A third placed finish with a record of P 26 W 10 D 3 L 13 F 162 A 187 Pts 23 mean that they would not contest the playoffs as the Dundee Rockets went on to win the whole thing.
The 1983/84 season saw the introduction of the Premier League and First Division format that would continue until the disbandment of the British Hockey League in 1996. Nine of the fifteen teams which had taken part the previous season joined the Premier League. It also saw the reintroduction of the Autumn Cup and the first season of sponsorship by Heineken. The 1983 Kohler Engines Autumn Cup was the first edition of the Autumn Cup as a British-wide competition in which 14 teams participated. The Flyers brought in a new Coach, the Stetson wearing Chris Reynolds from Calgary Alberta who had ambitions to coach in the NHL and who stated that the biggest drag in hockey was “Players who don’t work hard enough”. Gordon McDougall returned and was partnered up front by Canadian Chris Orban from Taber Alberta who so recently passed away. On the blue line fellow countryman John Maskiewich, from Smithers British Columbia, was recruited to shore up the defence. Jim Lynch was gone, he moved across the Forth to the Racers. The Autumn cup was a disaster. Only a home win over Glasgow Dynamos from the eight games played as the Flyers finished with a record of P 8 W 1 D 0 L 7 F 27 A 71 Pts 2. Ominously the Rockets run up 16-2 and 13-1 wins. Orban and McDougall however both put up 17 points. The very first Heineken League game was Saturday 15th October at home to last seasons English Champion Durham Wasps. The match was also the first to have a match night sponsor and the Flyers early season form was forgotten as they thumped the visitors 13-5. A blip the following night at Ayr was forgotten the next again Saturday when the Nottingham Panthers rolled in and were soundly beaten 10-2. Then came those back to back thumpings against the Rockets but a third straight win at home in the league started November when Cleveland were beaten 7-2. It was a false dawn, only 1 win and a draw in the next eleven matches. What a win it was though as the Racers were downed 11-7 at Kirkcaldy although as was customary now the Flyers were soundly beaten 9-2 a few weeks later on Edinburgh ice. We were now into January and the poor run, it was hoped, was ended with a 17-5 home spanking of the Whitley Bay Warriors but there were only home wins against Nottingham, Ayr and a late season win against champions Dundee to excite the home fans. If you were a regular traveller that season then you had almost nothing to shout about. The Flyers only road win on the season coming in the last weekend of the season when they won 9-7 against the bottom placed Cleveland Bombers to finish in 7th of 9 with a record of P 32 W 9 D 2 L 21 F 217 A 237 Pts20
Five points behind the Whitley Bay Warriors the Flyers failed to make the top six who entered the playoffs. They were divided into two groups of three. Group A was made up of Dundee, Streatham who were the only team Fife failed to take points against and Murrayfield while Group B was made up of Durham, Ayr and Whitley. The top two sides in each group advanced to the semi finals and final which were played over a single weekend. The start of the legendary Wembley weekends. Dundee beat Murrayfield 5-4 in the final.
And so to the 1980’s highlight season the 1984/85 season.
The Flyers returned to the idea of a player coach and Jack Dryburgh and Cameron Killoran scouted 34 year old Ron Plumb to be entrusted with the job, along with new imports Danny Brown and Dave Stoyanovich, of securing the Flyers place in the end of season Wembley bonanza. It was a night and day change of coaching from Reynolds who routinely demanded work work and more work and married to a system that clearly failed to get the best team effort. Plumb’s initial interview stated “There is a great deal of potential in the area and the ultimate aim is to put some direction into the sport. We have a wide range of talent in the squad and I want to generate team unity whereby everybody contributes in some sense. The players are starting to believe in themselves and perhaps they are beginning to realise that they are not as bad a hockey club as they thought they were. However they are not professionals and for most of them ice hockey is a hobby. I cannot demand anything from them – I can only ask for it”. It was refreshing for the players and the hockey buzz in the town started to go into overdrive. The team were going to be box office, the fans were going to lap up every second of the season, there was going to be exposure of the sport the likes of which had never been seen both locally and nationally. After a 3-2 win against the touring Air Canada side the Bluecol sponsored Autumn Cup action got underway with a 12-5 win in Ayr, Stoyanovich with 5 and Brown 3. The home fans saw a similar blitz the following weekend as the first Division Glasgow Dynamos were hosed 14-2 and Stoyanovich bagged another 5 with Brown netting 4. The blue touch paper had been lit and the following weekend the Rockets were lit up as British Champions Dundee came to town and were defeated 10-8 in front of over 2600 captivated fans with Stoyanovich 4 goals and Brown 3. A legion of Fifers ventured to Murrayfield and rejoiced in a 8-6 win in which the newly recruited Jimmy Pennycook from Dundee scored a hat trick. They went perfect in the group stages when they won 11-6 in Dundee. They would take on Durham Wasps, the winners of the English North and South section playoff, at Streatham on 1st December. Late Friday evening and the car park saw a convoy of busses depart for the lunchtime face off in London. The Flyers first major final in six years ultimately ended in disappointment with the middle period proving to be costly. The Flyers were ahead 2-1 after the first but lost four goals without reply in the middle stanza before coming up short in the third to lose 6-4. The league and qualification for the Wembley playoffs were however the stated main priority of the season. By the time they Flyers returned from their Bluecol Cup final defeat to play the Blackpool Seagulls at Kirkcaldy the following night they sat second in the table a point behind Murrayfield who were so far perfect on the season and had two games in hand and also had last seasons fan favourite Gordon McDougall in their ranks. The Seagulls were downed 11-6 in front of a modest 1600 crowd. The following week the Streatham Redskins hoodoo was broken with a 11-5 win in Kirkcaldy where there was a dramatic 5 minute delay as Dougie Latto was lifted from the ice on two sticks to hospital where it was later diagnosed as just a badly bruised back. The return game the following weekend in London saw the Flyers narrowly lose 7-6 and then came a record breaking night as the hapless Southampton Vikings rolled into Kirkcaldy. Stoyanovich bagged 13 goals in a 22-5 rout. The highest number of goals by an individual Flyers player and only one short of the British All-time record set by Dundee Rockets Roy Halpin in 1982. The match was also significant for the debut of three 15 year olds, Bobby Haig, Scott O’Connor and Dean Edmiston. Table topping Murrayfield Racers were dispatched 8-2 as the Flyers sought to topple them from top spot. Dundee were surely fed up with the sight of Flyers as they crashed to their 5th straight defeat of the season against the Kirkcaldy side when they were gubbed 15-3 at the start of the New Year. The defending Champions were losing their crown. Andy Linton had also returned to the club by this time and he hit a hat trick against his old club the Panthers when they visited at the end of January as the Flyers hit the top of the league. The following night in a tense affair in Edinburgh the Flyers escaped with a point in a come from behind 3-3 tie. There was a wobble at Ayr the following weekend when a depleted Flyers side lost 8-2.The ship was quickly righted however with an important 4 points from a road double header in the North East. The defeat at Ayr proved to be the last time the Flyers would taste defeat in the regular season. The Flyers were live on Grandstand on the afternoon of 23rd March when they faced Murrayfield and easily won 9-3 with the auld barn jam packed. The next night the Scottish Cup was captured with a 9-7 win in Dundee and again the Flyers were captured in good form by the STV cameras. With games in hand the Durham Wasps crept up on the rails and pipped the Flyers for the league title by two points. The Flyers had gone all season without a home defeat and the final stats were: P 36 W 27 D 4 L 5 F 325 A 168 Pts 58. The Flyers had Ayr and Cleveland in their playoff section and got their march to Wembley off on winnings ways but only just in a 9-8 come from behind win in front of the TV cameras and another creaking at the seams arena. A 5-3 win at Ayr the following night was a huge step to London and when they won 9-4 in Cleveland it was job done and rounded off by a 15-5 spanking of the Bombers as they signed off in front of their own fans. Around 1000 Flyers fans journeyed south for the big weekend and the fairy tale did have a happy ending. In the semi final the Streatham Redskins who upset the Durham Wasps in qualification were down and out by the midway point as the Flyers cruised to a 12-3 win in the first semi final and awaited to see which of their Scottish rivals they would meet for the Championship. The Ayr Bruins threatened an upset as they led the Murrayfield Racers 2-1 after the first but then capitulated to 13-4 drubbing. The 7000 sold out crowd , including a number of Wasps fans (remember those playoff jackets they had!) couldn’t have expected the manner in which the final would be decided. The Flyers produced a scintillating and at times almost dream like performance in the first period to send their fans into seventh heaven and kick start a party that would surely not be premature. Let’s just take a moment to recap: Brown from Linton 2.11; Brown from Stoyanovich and Plumb PP 6.27; Plumb from Linton PP 9.50; Hay then scores for the Racers at 15.11; Cottrell 15.51; Stoyanovich from Plumb 16.11; Linton from Brown 18.39 and Brown from Stoyanovich 19.59. A 7-1 lead after the first period but these were the Heineken run and gun days so it needed a 0-0 second period to demonstrate that the Flyers were not going to relinquish having both hands on the trophy. The Racers did win the last period 3-2 with further goals from Stoyanovich and Pennycook but the party was already well underway high in the Wembley stands. The Plumb Line had become the Wembley Wizards. Hockey in Kirkcaldy had reached a pinnacle that it is hard to argue had never been matched before and barely matched since.
Season 1985/86, would it be the morning after the night before ? Player of the year Dave Stoyanovich was always going to be a tough act to follow and his replacement Todd Bidner, an aggressive forward with NHL experience with the Washington Capitals, had all the paper credentials to be an even better player in this league but never really cut it on the ice. He didn’t make his task any easier by falling foul of the officials and missed five games through suspension during the season. Plumb returned as coach with Danny Brown who upped his personal goals total to 83 and was one of only two players to notch at least a point in all 36 league games. Charlie Kinmond once again joined the Flyers. The Autumn Cup was now known as the Norwich Union Cup and Glasgow were lambs to the slaughter on opening night going down 17-2 in front of 2800 fans and the mad cap new mascot ‘The Burrd’. These were the times that, in expectation of a 3000 crowd, fans routinely had to secure tickets during the midweek to ensure they got in. Fife lost 4-3 in Dundee and the next Saturday they suffered a crushing 8-6 reverse to the Racers which ended their 25-match unbeaten home record stretching back to March 1984. It ultimately proved fatal to their qualification hopes as the Racers won the group by a single point to advance to beat Durham in the final. The final stats: P 8 W 5 D 1 L 2 F 65 A 40 Pts 11
The club signed a sponsorship deal with Avco but in the league the Flyers just couldn’t find the sort of consistency to mount a challenge for top spot and by early December they had slipped into 5th place where they would finish as the Big Blue Machine Durham Wasps went on to win the league ahead of Murrayfield. One problem they faced in the 1985 portion of their schedule was the absence of first choice goalie Andy Donald due to exams although his deputy Craig Dickson turned in many fine performances. Donald and the Flyers however produced their best form in the run in. Only Durham had a better record than Fife in the closing weeks and Donald finished top of the net minding averages. The Flyers regular season stats were: P 36 W 20 D 6 L 10 F 270 A 196 Pts 46
The Flyers appeared to have the Wembley magic going for them again when they were perfect in their playoff group defeating the Wasps and Bruins home and away. The home game against the Bruins ending into the wee small hours of a Wednesday morning with 2200 still in attendance many of whom were drawn simply to say farewell to the retiring Chic Cottrell and Danny Brown who was returning to Toronto after the season to take up a job outside of hockey. Before that though another massive contingent followed the team to Wembley where they met the Racers in the semi final. The high of 12 months ago was replaced by the low of Tony Hand single handedly destroying the Flyers with 5 goals in an 8-4 win. There was double defeat for the Flyers fans who watched the Fife Flames lose out 7-0 to the Streatham Scorpions in the British Junior final. The season was concluded with the Scottish Cup weekend but there was to be no silverware as the Rockets knocked the Flyers out in the semi final.
Season 1986/87 started with a Testimonial game for Chic Cottrell who took over the coaching reigns. The Dryburgh and John Haig summer scouting had acquired two new faces and a familiar face for Fife fans. Experienced ex-NHL defenceman Al Sims would patrol the blue line and Mike Jeffrey would be looked upon to provide points and goals along with the returning Dave Stoyanovich. The Fife lounge was opened as well as better lighting in the rink to facilitate the TV cameras. Such was the interest around hockey in Kirkcaldy the club decided that they would enter the Kirkcaldy Kestrels into the British First Division and recruited Jim Lynch, 21 year old netminder Del Gosse ad 22 year old Mark Mackie as imports to help the development of the local players. The Kestrels would finish a respectable 8th considering they lost Del Gosse at the end of January who returned to Canada with an ankle injury. It proved a financial drain though with crowds around 1000 in the early part of the season then dropping to less than 200. It would be a season of so near yet so far for the Flyers. It was to start positively as the Flyers swept through their Norwich Union Cup section with a perfect record of: P8 W 8 D 0 L 0 F 104 A 44 Pts 16. Mike Jeffrey recorded a record 67 points and the Flyers would have to wait three weeks to find out that the Panthers would be their opponents in the final at the NEC in Birmingham. Once again the Fife faithful packed buses and cars and headed south. It was a match that ebbed and flowed and at no time was there ever a goal between the sides as they battled to a 4-4 tie after regulation. It was to be an overtime heart breaker by Panthers Eratt that denied the Flyers the silverware. Still the best banner I have seen was the “Preserve Wildlife – Stuff the Panthers” giant banner that was paraded around the arena day. However after the final things went disastrously wrong for Flyers who were anchored at the bottom of the league after seven games. A partial recovery was staged but just before the turn of the year Flyers took the unprecedented decision to release Jeffrey who had trouble fitting into the overall team despite being top points scorer. He was replaced by 25 year old Steve Moria who quickly established himself as one of the top play-makers and was a key man in the revival. With Moria there was a better blend to the side but ultimately it was the Flyers lack of strength in depth which would cost them dearly. This was accentuated by a horrendous run of injuries including tragically to Andy Linton who lost the sight in his left eye after being struck by the puck in a game against Murrayfield. He courageously decided though to carry on playing the remainder of the season. Attendances were still very good with the Flyers average of 3120 only bettered by Durham Wasps. The Flyers finished third in the league with the record of P 36 W 23 D 1 L 12 F 317 A 215 Pts 47 Once again the play offs proved to be no hurdle for the Flyers who progressed to their third consecutive Wembley finals by beating Ayr home and away and sharing the points with Dundee over two games. It was to be semi-final heart break again though, this time against the Durham wasps who trailed the Flyers 5-3 after two periods. A third period dominated by the Wasps saw them score four without reply as they went on to the Final to beat Murrayfield, a little perverse consolation to those Fifers in attendance. Dundee would knock the Flyers out of the Scottish Cup again with a 9-2 win. Season 1987/88 was to be another bridesmaid season for the Flyers. Al Sims and Steve Moria returned and the import trio was rounded out by Fred Perlini who was last seasons’ top scorer with 171 points for the Nottingham Panthers. Also back in the line-up, albeit after a protracted wrangle with the British Ice Hockey Association about his reclassification, was Jim Lynch after his year guiding the Kestrels. The Flyers were given an inkling that perhaps this was not going to be their season in the early stages of the Norwich Union Cup. Having lost 10-6 to arch rivals Murrayfield Racers in Edinburgh Flyers were left with the task of winning by the same margin on their own ice to retain a realistic chance of progressing further in the tournament. It looked a hopeless cause as Racers built up a six goal lead but the Flyers staged one of greatest ever fightbacks ever seen at the rink, eventually winning 11-8. One more goal would have been enough but it was instead a glorious failure as they tied with Racers on points but bowed out with a record of: P 6 W 5 D 0 L 1 F 64 A 38 Pts 10 The Racers would be downed by Durham Wasps in a final that took place in front of the TV cameras in Kirkcaldy on December 5th, The Flyers faced off later that night against the Peterborough Pirates.
Throughout the season the Flyers were involved in a three horse race in the league disputing the leadership with Murrayfield and shock squad Whitley Bay Warriors. It was commendable that Flyers maintained their challenge despite serious injuries to Al Sims (hand) and Steve Moria (knee). There was some turmoil behind the bench too as they changed coach mid season after the resignation of Chic Cottrell and Jack Dryburgh took the hot seat. His arrival behind the bench was the sequel to the Premier League’s longest unbeaten run of the season which lifted Flyers back into the title race. The league was eventually lost on the penultimate weekend of the season when Whitley visited Kirkcaldy on the Saturday and won 10-6 and Fife travelled the following night to Edinburgh and coughed up another two points in a 9-6 defeat, the Riverside Rink was bursting at the seams as a record crowd for the season of 3800 were gripped by the action. That was an incredible 2500 more than the Racers average for the season whilst the Flyers average dropped to just under 2800. Fife’s record of P 36 W 26 D 2 L 8 F 323 A 215 Pts 54 saw them finish third, two points behind the Warriors and four behind the Champions Racers. Once again the Flyers proved they had the nerve for playoff hockey and went a perfect four for four in their group with Solihull Barons and Murrayfield Racers, their first ever playoff win in Edinburgh. Another Wembley weekend for Flyers fans and in the semi final against the Warriors the game still hung in the balance after the first two period was Fife ahead 7-5. The Warriors imploded in the third period and lost six without reply. Fife would meet the Big Blue Machine Durham Wasps who had similarly dominated their third period in the 11-8 defeat of the Racers who would fail to make the Final showpiece game for the first time. It was the first time that the Wembley weekend had been completely sold out and the Flyers were never ahead in the game and never quite able to peg the Wasps back going down 8-5. Paul Smith and Rick Brebant topped the scoring charts over the weekend above Perlini and Moria who were top scorers across the entire playoff series with Andy Donald , who would never play again for the club following a much publicised mid-air bust up on the flight home, having the best goalie stats and Fife the fair play for least penalty minutes. It was still a still another season without silverware as the Racers won the Scottish Cup with a 9-6 win. The Fife Flames also made the Wembley weekend and again returned north empty handed as they went down 4-2 to the Nottingham Cougars. More importantly however their line up included the following names; Les Millie, John Haig, David Smith, Steven King. There was success for the U13 Kirkcaldy Chiefs who won the British final against Nottingham Tigers. The Kestrels played another season in the First Division which was now regionalised into a North and South section after receiving significant backing by Fife Scottish Omnibuses. Their imports were Steve Marr who was player-coach after being released by the Ayr Bruins, Scott Orban the brother of Chris who had been released by Murrayfield and future Flyers coach Brian Kanewischer made a handful of appearances as they finished third in the eight team league.
Season 1988/89 continued to pull in the crowds right across the country with the Flyers topping the attendance charts with an average of just under 2900. All eyes were on Fife as they unveiled an ambitious experiment by importing three world class Czech Internationals. Forwards Vincent Lucac and Jindrich Kokrment and defenceman Milan Figala generated huge publicity around the country and equal amounts of attention on the ice from their North American opponents. Jack Dryburgh was persuaded to retain his spot behind the bench before stepping aside midway through the season with Rab Petrie taking over. Despite losing only one game in the Norwich Union group it was a pivotal loss to the Dundee Rockets who topped the group on goal difference over Murrayfield and Fife in third with the record : P 8 W 4 D 3 L 1 F 72 A 42 Pts 11 – The team celebrated 50 years when they hosted Ayr Bruins on 1st October with a certain Frank Morris in their line up. The league push started steadily enough and despite sharing the four game series against league winners Durham Wasps they were never quite able to get close enough to mount a challenge and finished with a third place record of P36 W24 D 1 L 11 F 311 A 231 Pts49. A mid season ankle injury to Kokrment had seen him return home for a number of weeks and the Flyers brought in temporary cover in Tim Cranston who put up an incredible 35 points in only seven games. His style and that of the Czechs were so polar opposite and the silky-smooth hockey that the trio had been accustomed to was too often nullified by the bump and grind of the league and consistency was hard to find. Flyers found themselves in a playoff group with the two North East rivals and they failed to make the Wembley weekend losing heavily in both road games and the point snatched by Durham in Kirkcaldy was enough to ultimately eliminate them. In the Scottish Cup the Flyers lost out in the semi final to the Ayr Bruins.
The Flyers returned to a North American brand of hockey for season 1989/90. Coach Petrie looked to former Whitley Bay defenceman Mike Rowe and forwards Luc Beausoleil who hopped over the Forth after a season with the Racers and the prodigious Rick Fera who was in his fifth year in the country after playing with Murrayfield, Solihull and Tayside Tigers. The Flyers flopped in the Norwich Union group and finished bottom with just one win, against Murrayfield, in their opening six games. In the league the tale of the tape was quite simple really, they took only one win from 12 games against the top three sides. Champions Cardiff Devils, who gave them a couple of roastings in Wales and second and third placed, by some distance, Murrayfield whom they beat once in Kirkcaldy and Durham. Fera and Beausoliel put up 153 and 124 points respectively but there was simply no additional run support. Fera finished second in points scoring behind Cardiff’s ex Flyer Steve Moria whilst Luc was fifth overall. It was a fifth placed finish with a record of: P 32 W 14 D 3 L 15 F 226 A 264 Pts 31 Attendances were down on average by about 400 at a little over 2300. It seemed unlikely that the Flyers would make the Wembley weekend again when they ended up in qualifying group A with the Racers and Wasps but they shocked Durham 13-3 on opening night and although they crashed 5-1 at home to Murrayfield they gained a decisive second win when they were 6-4 winners in Edinburgh leaving a trip to Durham where the already eliminated Wasps won 10-2. It did however mean that a second placed finish paired the Flyers with the formidable Cardiff Devils in the first semi-final and this was a step too far for the team who went down 5-1 as the rags-to-riches Devils went on to win it all. Murrayfield won the Scottish Cup semi final against the Flyers on the way to beating the Devils from that little-known Scottish town of Cardiff in the final. The Flames were once again disappointed in their Wembley final when they lost 3-1 to the Nottingham Cougars.
The 80’s however had been a fun time to follow the sport and for the Fife faithful there were many more ups than downs. The downs were just around the corner however …..
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rossco
Junior
Posts: 543
EIHL Team: Fife Flyers
NHL Team: Detroit Red Wings
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Post by rossco on Jul 14, 2019 17:08:14 GMT
1990's
A decade which started with demotion turned into one of the most successful in Fife Flyers' entire history. The rollercoaster ride began with a shock relegation from the Premier league in Season 1990/91, the first time Fife had ever been dumped out of the top flight. As seasons go it was a disaster as the club tried to rekindle its Czech experiment only to abandon it after the Autumn Cup. Figala was behind the bench and with the returning Rick Fera the club recruited defenceman Lubos Oslizlo and forward Jaro Korotuicka. The Autumn Cup record of: P 8 W 6 D 0 L 2 F 65 A 49 Pts 12 saw them miss out on the semi final round by a point to Humberside Seahawks. It wasn’t a heinous start to the season but by the time Cleveland Bombers came to town, on the 2nd weekend of the league season, the Flyers had lost their opening two heavily on the road and the three Czechs were gone with Tim Coghlin on defence and winger Steve Gatzos in place as the team returned to bump and grind North American style of hockey. A week later Mike Fedorko, who had played and coached in Holland over the last few years, was behind the bench. By mid-January Chic Cottrell had replaced Fedorko who had a 50% record and just before Christmas had presided over a shambolic 19-8 shelling at Murrayfield. Just before the coaching change Coghlin and Gatzos were shipped with Paul Cain and Darcy Cahill flown in. Cahill lasted 10 games and Justin Butorac brought his whole-hearted endeavour to what was a hopeless cause. The directors were forced to publicly quash rumours of a rink closure as the team floundered at the bottom of the table finishing with the record: P 36 W 8 D 4 L 24 F 215 A 306 Pts 20. The crowds were resilient though with the Flyers average up a few people on last season. The relegation play-offs were just as painful and the team slipped out of the Premier League. Somewhat ironically the team won the mini Scottish League but were beaten by Ayr in the Scottish Cup semi. Fife Flames eventually broke their Wembley duck when they became British Champions with a 5-0 win over Romford. The directors pledged to back one year in Division One. This meant that the Season 1991/92 stakes were high as former Cardiff coach Brian Kanewischer built his own team. Led by former Ayr imports Frank Morris and Richard Laplante and featuring the inspirational Cal Brown on defence. In the Autumn Cup they finished behind Durham and Whitley Bay in the group stages with a record of: P 8 W 3 D 1 L 4 F 48 A 59. Flyers added the reclassified Kel Land on defence who had been in Swindon for a couple of years and took Division One by Storm. They were pushed all the way however and with a record of P 36 W 27 D 3 L 6 F 383 A 204 Pts 57 they took the title ahead of Slough Jets on goal difference. The job was only partly done though as they had to navigate the playoff round. Telford and Romford from Division One were joined by relegation threatened Ayr Bruins from the Premier. After beating Ayr at Kirkcaldy there was a wobble against Telford down south but further wins set up an epic, nail biting all-or-nothing play-off showdown with Ayr Raiders who, themselves, were homeless and on the verge of extinction. Fife led by an aggregate of five in the return at the Summit Centre in Glasgow when Raiders staged a stunning fightback. The capacity crowd (plus some more) could barely watch as Fife held out to win by a solitary goal. Laplante set a record for most points in a game with 17 and scored 211 points on the season eclipsing the previous totals from Bud Scrutton (188), Chick Mann (185) and Dave Stoyanovich (175). The drop down a division had clearly wrankled the fanbase as despite the much more successful season on the ice the crowds dived with the average of 1750 almost 600 down on the last couple of seasons. The mini Scottish league was replaced by a five game challenge series between the Flyers and Racers which saw the Flyers win the first two and drop the next three, the last 11-10 as the Racers won the Capital Foods Challenge Cup. In the Scottish Cup the Flyers lost their semi to Ayr. The Flames created history when they became the first team to retain the British Junior crown when they defeated the Durham Mosquitoes 3-2. Kanewischer wanted to continue the job in the Premier League in Season 1992/93 but was replaced by Jim Lynch. Frank Morris returned as did Cal Brown but the team captain was lost to a career ending head injury in meaningless challenge game in Billingham. In a free weekend between the Autumn Cup finishing and the league starting he dived to block a puck and a skate fractured his skull resulting in a few days later having a blood clot removed from his brain. Ed Zawatsky was a new face who lasted the Autumn Cup campaign before returning to the ECHL. Rob Abel who iced last season for Whitley Bay moved North and won’t ever forget the New Years welcome he got from Paul Hand in Edinburgh who headbutted him during a scrum. With the injury to Brown the Flyers moved to bring Milan Figala back as cover. Bob Giffen arrived a few weeks after to help provide a steadying influence on the blueline. In the New Year the Flyers would also add another D in Darrin Bannister but then shortly afterwards Abel returned home as the Flyers with a record of: P 36 W 15 D 1 L 20 F 193 A 232 Pts 31 snuck in on goal difference to the playoffs in eighth spot by beating Nottingham in the penultimate game. The post season saw them lose their opening two games by double digits and Flyers lost it at the end of their game with Billingham where Lynch was suspended for comments made to ref Nicholson who had earlier thrown out Frank Morris, the heart of the team. By the time Panthers returned for the last game of the season Flyers were shattered through injuries to Bannister and Giffen and Morris had missed virtually 3 games due to suspension and they lost all 6 playoff games. The Scottish Cup weekend was staged in Kirkcaldy and the Flyers were once again eliminated in the semi, this time by the Racers. The Flames couldn’t make it three in a row at Wembley as Durham got their revenge 5-2 from last season.
Having re-established the team's credentials in a rapidly changing league and with the Fife fans back in good numbers with a 45% increase in average attendance to above 2500 the club and Lynch then raised the stakes. For Season 1993/94 he signed Doug Smail straight from the NHL (there had been a fleeting appearance in the IHL with San Diego), the first player to move from ''The Show'' straight into British hockey. A veteran of some 800 NHL games with Quebec, Minnesota and Ottawa, his electrifying speed and stunning skills were perfectly complemented by Mark Morrison, a former New York Ranger captured from Italian hockey. With Ryan Kummu dominating on D and Neil Smith a steady provider of points and some grit Fife started to perform and entertain as only they can. It took a few weeks for the team to get going during which time the Autumn Cup record of: P 6 W 0 D 2 L 4 F 25 A 37 Pts 2 saw them finish bottom of their group. In the league the Flyers offered the only real challenge to the Champion Devils until they suffered a series of stumbles in January which ended them with a runners-up record of P 44 W 27 D 2 L 15 F 304 A 192 Pts 56. There were a number of highlights throughout a season that surprisingly saw crowds take another downward turn with the team average dropping below 2000. Champions elect Cardiff were hosed 12-2 and there was a first ever win in the league against the Racers. Oh let’s not forget Kummu sending David Longstaff head first over the boards in Kirkcaldy and Smail breaking the short-handed goals in a season record (13) against Murrayfield. In the playoffs the Flyers finished runners up to the Sheffield Steelers to eliminate the Racers and secure a long overdue return to Wembley where they were beaten by Cardiff in the semi. The Flames however were winners again, albeit jointly with Swindon as they finished 1-1 after OT. There was silverware in the shape of Flyers first ever success in the Scottish Cup tournament where they beat Paisley in the semi and Murrayfield in the final. Season 1994/95 was wrecked by a series of injuries yet it all started positively with the return of Morrison and Kummu and the arrival of the highly touted Josh Boni and Tony Szabo who raced out of the scoring blocks in the Benson and Hedges (Autumn Cup) as the team went a perfect 8 for 8 on the way to the quarter finals where they were downed by the auld enemy Racers over two legs. In November Boni had been cut and replaced with Doug Marsden. Kummu shattered his jaw in a training accident on Christmas Eve and Morrison had to miss games due to a sciatic nerve issue. Szabo would walk out on the team the day before a trip to Cardiff but in all of this there was the opportunity for a number of the younger local skaters to increase their skillset. The dark clouds were lifted in January when Smail returned, Kummu broke his jaw for a second time and that prompted an SOS call back home from Smail to former team mate Laurie Boschman. The 34 year old center had over 1000 NHL appearances and in partnership with Smail started to destroy defences most nights as Flyers won back to back Scottish Cups with a win over Paisley and finished the league season winning six of the last seven and a four point cushion to make the playoffs in 6th place with a record of: P 44 W 20 D 4 L 20 F 271 A 242 Pts 44. The playoffs started with hopes of a Wembley return but the season ended with yet another injury twist as Morrison’s broken thumb was put into plaster and despite three home wins they lost all three road games and missed out on goal difference. Attendances once again dropped with another 200 off the average to around 1750. The Flames won once again at Wembley. Season 1995/96 saw the final British League season before the inception of the Ice Hockey Super League and the British National League. There was almost £0.5M spent on improvements to the rink in the summer and as Lynch stood down as coach there was the tantalising return of the legendary Ron Plumb. Morrison and Marsden returned as did Morris after a year each with Murrayfield and Trafford. Chris Palmer moved from Murrayfield to be the top scorer. A standing ovation on his first game underlined the high regard in which Plumb was held, but it was to be a short-lived and unsuccessful homecoming. A clearly under-performing Fife scraped through the Autumn Cup qualifiers, and it was clear action had to be taken. Another who joined from Murrayfield was Paul Hand and the controversial signing would quit on the club as the Flyers were about to play the second leg of the quarter finals of the Benson and Hedges Cup against the Newcastle Warriors at Whitley, the Flyers scraped through 11-10 on aggregate. A change was made though when Plumb stepped down, Morrison stepped up and a whole new chapter began in the club's history. Mo's first game in charge was against Sheffield, live on TV in the Benson & Hedges Cup semi-finals. It was ''The Braveheart Game'' when tartan-clad Fife fans turned the rink into a mini-Hampden and roared Fife to a first leg 5-3 victory but they couldn’t hold their nerve in the return and Sheffield made the final 9-8 on aggregate. The Flyers roster had a more British based look than most in the league and they often found it tough going against the Canadians and reclassified players. Later in the season Morrison bolstered the playoff push with the introduction of Frank Evans on D and firecracker forward Kevin St Jacques who quickly became a crowd favourite. Once again it was a late charge with seven wins from the last eight games that got them safely into the playoffs. However, after being the form team in the run in the team flattered to deceive by returning only one win and a tie in the six games to miss the last ever Wembley Finals weekend. Attendances were pretty static from last season and the Flames record breaking ninth appearance at the Wembley final ended with a 3-2 Guildford Firestars win. There was no Scottish Cup tournament run.
In Season 1996/97 Morrison began his first full season as coach but in a very different league and with new bosses. Ownership of the team passed into the hands of local businessman, Tom Muir, Tom Muir Senior, Jack Wishart and John Waring. The arena-based teams broke way to form the Super League, and those left behind made the most of life in regionalised leagues. Taking control Mr Muir observed: “There are too many people in Kirkcaldy who love ice hockey for there not to be a team”. He was right as crowds rose encouragingly back over 2100 on average as Morrison steered a rookie side to a Northern Premier League and Scottish League double. The 14 consecutive wins from Ron Plumbs 80’s side was equalled and they remained unbeaten at home for five months. Russ Parent came on board to bolster the blueline as Morris and Morrison lead the way up front. Their record of P 36 W 33 D 0 L 3 F 315 A 130 Pts 66 saw them comfortable league winners ahead of Paisley who won the Scottish Cup against the Flyers and took the only point they dropped in the playoffs from them. They went through to the British Championship final against the short lived “Dream Team”, Swindon Ice Lords who had Todd Dutiaume amongst their 10 imports, at the MEN Arena in Manchester. A 1000 strong Fife support put many Super League followings to shame as almost inevitably the Flyers lost 5-0. North and South reunited for the Season 1997/98 under the banner of the British National League. There were still some disagreements amongst clubs about what constituted an import but Fife with Morrison, Morris and new addition on D Bill Moody, who would go on to win the Mirror of Merit that season, were less worried than most about this as their prodigious local talent started to come to the fore. Davie Smith, Steven King and John Haig all put up numbers that some imports in the league couldn’t match. The later two along with goalkeeper Bernie McCrone made the British All-Star team and Morrison won coach of the year. The format of the new set up saw a North and South conference with Flyers topping the Northern Premier League ahead of Paisley. The teams then played a National league where Fife finished 6th, well behind the powerhouse team that season the Guildford Flames. In the middle of the season was the Christmas Cup, again based on a North and South grouping, although last time I looked Telford was hardly North of very much. The Flyers finished a couple of points behind Telford who went on to beat the South winners the Flames in the Final. The Benson and Hedges Cup at the season start did not feature the Flyers who instead played in the Autumn Trophy finishing runners up to Kingston Hawks. In the Championship playoffs the Flyers marched through to the “Wembley style” finals in Hull by toping their group ahead of Telford. They met Kingston Hawks and after an even first two periods with the scores tied 3-3 the Hawks soared their way to the final with a 4-0 third period. There was a wee dip in crowds but the average remained above 2000 for the Flyers which was the best in the National league and better than Super League sides Bracknell and Basingstoke. Paisley were beaten 5-1 in the Scottish Cup final.
In Season 1998/99 Flyers celebrated their Diamond Jubilee in spectacular style. The league increased import numbers to six per team and Fife somewhat reluctantly followed the crowd. Czech goalie Frank Neckar and Justin Bekkering on defence joined returnees Morris, Morrison, Moody for the start of the season. Fife were involved in the Benson and Hedges Cup and finished in second spot in their BNL group. This then led to a “Challenge Round” which saw the Super League teams match up against the BNL teams based upon where they finished in the previous group stage. What a complete waste of time, the eight Super League teams scored a combined 152 goals from the home and away ties for the loss of just 18! Cardiff put 22 past Fife without reply. What was the point? The answer was the Benson and Hedges Plate for all those knocked out in the “Challenge Round”, no points for identifying the teams involved. Peterborough were beaten in the quarter final and the semi against Telford Tigers would be decided in a penalty shootout after the teams were level on aggregate after two legs. Jeff Sobb was added to the line-up in early November as Fife suffered a slow start to what was just now a single National league competition. The flamboyant Neckar was cut before Christmas and the Flyers didn’t progress in the Christmas Cup, finishing third in their group. Steve Brown who had previously played in the ISL with Bracknell came on board and their best form of the season was reserved yet again for the run in. The up-turn coincided with the arrival of two players from Telford, Todd Dutiaume and John Coyle. The Flyers took off and were now backstopped by the kids in goal. Joe Watkins aged 19 and Stephen Murphy aged 16 who helped Flyers win the Scottish Cup in a game at Kirkcaldy in front of 3000 fans, the biggest attendance that season in Scotland. It was a 5th place finish in the league and in their playoff group, which included the Champion Slough Jets, the Flyers second place finish saw them make a return to the Finals in Hull. Clearly the underdogs going into the weekend and having to overcome the loss of Morrison who had a broken ankle the Flyers upset all the odds. They were never behind against Guildford in the semi and hung on to win 4-3 to set up a winner take all with the seemingly unbeatable Slough Jets. If you were to script a movie then this one would probably have all the drama you’d expect from a Hollywood portrayal of a sporting final. Flyers came tearing out of the blocks in the first period and were 4-1 up. They maintained that advantage after two periods, leading 5-2. Jets got a couple of quick goas in the third period and the Flyers nerves were shredded. They tied the game with just over five minutes to go. Next goal wins. It didn’t arrive in regulation nor did it in overtime. Sudden death penalty shots would decide the outcome and up stepped John Coyle to coolly deliver the winning goal and with Joe Watkins denying Derek Higdon Fife were British Champions. A couple of days later 1200 or so fans turned up at Fife Ice Arena for the Championship party. Flyers once again had the best attendance in the BNL but it was now down to around 1900 on average. Strangely it would continue to fall to around 1600 in Season 1999/2000 which saw Morrison assemble arguably one of the greatest ever Fife teams and steer it to an incredible Grand Slam: the National League, Championship play-off crown, NTL Cup and a fifth Scottish Cup. Morrison returned with Morris and Dutiaume and added Ted Russell on defence from Peterborough and Russell Monteith in his first season outside of North America. The chemistry in the team was almost instantaneous and that appeared to be the deciding factor over other challengers such as Stan Marple’s Guildford Flames and Randy Smith’s often out of control Peterborough Pirates. The Benson and Hedges competition was even more convoluted than the previous season. Suffice to say the Flyers lost to Basingstoke in the Plate semi. In the league the Flyers were chased all the way by Guilford and by the narrowest margin of two points from a couple of OT losses the Flyers won the title. They were helped along the way by the record breaking Russell Monteith who shattered the club record for powerplay goals with 38 on the season. Bill Moody re-joined the team early in the New Year and by that time the Flyers had added the Christmas Cup to the trophy cabinet when they beat Basingstoke 6-5 on aggregate. Peterborough remained dangerous opponents but Fife topped their playoff group to go through to meet Solihull in the semi. Fife won both legs to meet the Bison in a best of five series which was over in quick fashion. A 6-3 win in Kirkcaldy in game one was followed by a crucial 2-1 win on the road the following night. The following Friday night Fife rounded off their season in Kirkcaldy with a 2-1 win to clinch the trophy with Steven King playing with a double broken jaw. Morrison won a post war equalling third Coach of the Year, Murphy cleaned up in all the categories in his rookie year and John Haig once again topped the list of British points scorers.
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rossco
Junior
Posts: 543
EIHL Team: Fife Flyers
NHL Team: Detroit Red Wings
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Post by rossco on Jul 14, 2019 17:09:42 GMT
2000's
For the first time in the BNL the Flyers were topped in the attendance chart despite a small increase for the 2000/01 Season Guildford were now marginally bigger drawers. Unsurprisingly Fife returned all but one of their imports from the Slam season, Moody deciding to ‘hang em up’ but more importantly perhaps was the loss of the Haig and Smith double act to Guildford. The Flyers topped their Benson and Hedges Cup group, then got whacked by ISL Newcastle Jesters. The league however was effectively lost early on as Flyers struggled to pick up points on the road and eventually they finished 3rd four points behind the Flames despite Dutiaume and Monteith top scoring in the league. Craig Nelson and Bill Morrisons had arrived mid season from Paisley. In the Christmas Cup they qualified out of the group and ‘smoked’ the Peterborough Pirates in a second leg come back to reach the Final. The Flames won both legs. In the playoffs there was disappointment as they finished third in their group to be eliminated. There was the by now annual presentation of the Scottish Cup after a win against the Edinburgh Capitals. Season 2001/02 saw the BNL also increased with Dundee Stars (eventual winners) and Cardiff Devils joining. Morris, Dutiaume, Morrison, Monteith for his final season all returned. There was a new man behind the mask in import Shawn Silver and the arrival of the hugely popular Karry Biette from the Flames. There was an end to the ludicrous Benson and Hedges start of season tournament and this was replaced by the Fundus Challenge Cup. Flyers were perfect in their six group games and progressed to the Nottingham Arena for a finals weekend in November. Peterborough Pirates were hammered 10-2 in the semi and a Karry Biette hat trick helped the Flyers lift the trophy in a 6-3 win against the Coventry Blaze. It was another 3rd placed finish in the league as Dundee Stars ran away with the title. Qualification from the playoff group stage was achieved by Fife ran up against the red hot Stars who sent them out at the semi final stage as well as annexing the Scottish Cup from them. Season 2002/03 saw both John Haig and Davie Smith reunite the famous partnership at Fife. Steve Briere entertained in net and high fived his way around the rink at the end of every game. Mike Bishop, Jeff Trembecky and Scott Campbell just about stayed long enough to taste the stovies and many thought Steve Roberts overstayed his nine games before being cut. The BNL lost teams in Slough, Paisley, and Peterborough but gained Newcastle and Milton Keynes becoming Solihull MK. It was however somewhat of another disappointing season. Fife finished 7th in the 10 team league to make the playoffs but picked up only one post season win from six. The Scottish Cup or Caledonia Cup did return after a 9-7 aggregate win over Dundee Stars in the Final that season. The 2003/04 Season saw Flyers collect both the British National League and Caledonia Cup. Ian Fletcher and another fan favourite Greg Kuznik were recruited on the blueline and to bolster the returning trio of Biette, Morrison and Dutiaume was the mercurial Dan Goneau and no nonsense Paul Spadafora. It was a mixture of sublime skill and grit that worked and the BNL title was won after a very close race with Fife beating Guildford to top spot by only 1 point. However the league was starting its demises with only 7 teams competing. It meant that Hull were dropped as last placed team from the playoffs and 6 played a mini league to see who qualified for the semi. Fife finished 2nd and matched up against Bracknell who won both legs. The Caledonia Cup was retained again after victory against the Edinburgh Capitals. The 2004/05 Season as it turned out was the final season of the BNL. The EIHL which was going into its second season following the collapse of the ISL played some crossover games with the BNL teams. The BNL iced 8 imports and the EIHL teams iced 12. Fife recorded 3 wins and an OTL in the 14 games played. The game had struggled with these inequalities since the inception of the ISL and the ridiculous Benson and Hedges competition. Briere was back then replaced by Scott Hay. Adrian Saul added from Murrayfield whilst newcomers Judd Medak and Kent Davyduke failed to live up to expectations. In truth though it was a season where Fife played the majority of their games without a full import quota due to injuries on their way to a 6th place finish. They got some of their mojo back to qualify from the playoff group and in the best of three semi against the Guildford Flames they took game one but lost the next two. There was no Scottish Cup played for. Season 2005/06 and the demise of the BNL with Edinburgh and Newcastle deciding their future lay in the EIHL saw Dundee and Fife enter into a completely different world where the only North American accent in the room was that of coach Dutiaume. They competed and won the Northern League without a regulation loss and then won the Scottish National League dropping just three points from 32. They won the Scottish Autumn cup with a perfect record of 11 wins in the group stages before beating Dundee in the final over two legs. The Scottish cup was won against Edinburgh’s SNL side and Dundee Stars were beaten to win the Northern League playoff. A clean sweep but it wasn’t import hockey and the general interest in hockey in the town dwindled which is no disrespect to all the local lads who donned the jersey during this team. Season 2006/07 was another parade for the team, the core of which would step up into the EIHL in the coming years. A 100% record in the Northern League but a shock in the semi as Dundee dumped them out. A 100% record in the SNL and the retention of the Scottish Autumn Cup with an 11-7 aggregate win over the Stars who were also hosed 8-1 in the Scottish Cup Final. Season 2007/08 saw Dundee put up a bit more resistance in the Northern League but again Fife only dropped three points from 48 and they went on to win the playoff by beating the Stars 5-2 in the Final. The SNL was not played for by the Flyers and the Stars broke the stranglehold in competitions by winning the Autumn Cup 7-5 on aggregate against the Flyers whom they also dumped out of the Scottish Cup at the quarter final stage. Season 2008/09 saw the emergence of Solway Sharks who had a couple of Eastern European imports and they topped the Northern League on regulation wins. The Flyers however would be Champions as the two met in the playoff Final which was decided 1-0 in favour of Fife. The Scottish Autumn Cup saw both sides tied on points from the group stage but again Flyers prevailed in the Final winning 11-2 on aggregate after a 9-0 first leg trouncing. It was the Dundee Tigers who competed for the Scottish Cup final but Fife won it 6-4 over two legs. Season 2009/10 and Solway were again a force to be reckoned with and they topped the Northern League again beating Fife by a point and this time knocked the Flyers out of the playoff semi on their way to be crowned Champions. In the Scottish Autumn Cup Flyers progressed in the semi against Solway but Dundee comprehensively beat them over two legs to win it. The only silverware of the season was the Scottish Cup when Solway were beaten 11-5 over the two legs. Season 2010/11 was their last out of hockey’s top flight before they joined the EIHL and it was the final season of the Northern League. The Flyers topped the table on goal difference from Whitley Warriors whom they went on to beat 6-0 in the playoff final.
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rossco
Junior
Posts: 543
EIHL Team: Fife Flyers
NHL Team: Detroit Red Wings
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Post by rossco on Jul 14, 2019 17:13:04 GMT
The EIHL Era
A quick history: The EIHL was formed for the 2003-04 season following the collapse of the Ice Hockey Super League which had been the top level of the sport in the country since its formation for the 1996-97 season. The ISL itself had been formed from a rift in the British Hockey League which saw seven teams and the newly formed Ayr Scottish Eagles create an import dominated competition. The Flyers as we know did not join and after dropping out of the British Hockey League Premier Division in 1996 it was 15 years before the Flyers once again graced the top level of hockey in the UK when they joined the EIHL for season 2011-12. In the eight seasons before the Flyers joined the regular season league winners were the Steelers, Blaze, Giants, Blaze, Blaze, Steelers, Blaze, Steelers – quite the domination by two clubs. In the Flyers seven seasons to date in the league the regular season winners have been Giants, Panthers, Giants, Steelers, Steelers, Devils, Devils.
In fact if you exclude the now defunct Newcastle Vipers, who won one title and the recently introduced Conference trophies then the major EIHL honours have only been shared by five teams:
League Play-offs Challenge Cup British KO Cup Total
Nottingham Panthers 1 5 8 0 14
Sheffield Steelers 5 5 0 1 11
Coventry Blaze 4 2 2 1 9
Belfast Giants 3 1 2 1 7
Cardiff Devils 2 1 3 1 7
Newcastle Vipers 0 1 0 0 1
It was the ill-fated Newcastle Vipers demise in the summer of 2011 that opened the spot for the Flyers to be invited into the Elite League. After ratification at the EIHL board meeting in late June it was agreed the Flyers would be the 10th team for the 2011-12 season which at the point in time was only 78 days away and the Flyers pretty much had an entire team to build from a semi-professional league foundation to compete in a professional league.
It was in fact 71 days before they played Dundee Stars in a couple of challenge games, losing 6-1 in Fife and salvaging some optimism to start the season with a 4-4 tie on Tayside the following evening.
Coventry Blaze were the first visitors to Fife and inflicted a 2-0 shutout and they followed up the following night in more clinical fashion with a 9-0 hosing on the Flyers first road trip. If the size of the task at hand wasn’t already understood it was becoming abundantly clear and we weren’t even into the dark winter nights. The following week the Panthers, who had been lobbying the league about safety concerns that Fife didn’t have full plexi-glass, went back south with a 6-2 win. The Giants inflicted a 9-1 thumping on them the next again week and the following night the first points were on the board as the Capitals were defeated 3-2 at Kirkcaldy. The following week a trip to Hull yielded a point in a 3-2 SO loss and Zemlak was chucked out for excessive roughness earning him a match ban. It was still a loss though and started a run of 14 consecutive defeats, the next win came against the Stingrays at home in the middle of November thanks to a 5-4 shootout. In the next eleven games there was only a single success, a double points league and Challenge Cup game at home to Braehead Clan that yielded a 5-4 win, this was enough to not have the Flyers finish bottom of the Challenge Cup group. Bottom of the league they were however and remained there for the entire season. Late December into January there was a little surge in results, back to back wins over Dundee and Edinburgh home and away then a 4-3 win through at Braehead in mid January with the following game at home to Coventry another shootout win. A road win in Dundee and a shootout loss at home to Clan at the end of January was the beginning of another dire run with only one win picked up in the remaining 18 games to end a season of hard learning. Danny Stewart who was familiar with the EIHL after his five previous years in the league with the Blaze and Vipers was top scorer with 36 points, one ahead of Toms Hartmanis who had also starred for the Vipers the previous season. Mike Hamilton with over a point a game returned to the ECHL mid season and Matt Siddall similarly packed his bags for the EBEL. Smooth skating D man Tim Maxwell joined around Christmas but would miss the end of the season due to a concussion that defined the end of his hockey career. Dundee Stars sacked Dan Cemen as their player coach and he also joined mid season. Last seasons top point scorer, Stephen Gunn, was the top Brit point getter with 15 points. Player coach Todd Dutiaume also suited up despite being in the twilight of his career and in the late season suffering an unimaginable personal tragedy.
For the 2012-13 season Flyers had eight Kirkcaldy-born Brits on their roster - Tommy Muir, Kyle Horne, Euan Forsyth, Chris Wands, Stephen Gunn, Jamie Wilson, Josh Scoon and Allan Anderson - as well as Edinburgh-born netminder Blair Daly. With greater time to prepare a roster coach Todd Dutiaume and his assistant Danny Stewart introduced some new faces that would have an immediate impact on the Flyers fans. Caisey Haines was a lead by example type of player and second top points getter. Kris Hogg just a couple of points behind was someone who played a smart in your face game. The Pitton brothers, the very dependable Bryan in goals and Jason, a power forward who sparked the crowd with goals hits and fights. On defence the supreme pairing of Jeff Caister and Derek Keller. Flyers added the goals of top scorer Bobby Chaumont after he departed Braehead after the opening weeks of the season and with a supporting cast of solid imports and Brits the hurt of the previous season quickly faded. This season saw the introduction of a new two conference format in which the ten participating teams were split into two conferences of five teams. The Gardiner Conference, named after former Chicago Blackhawks goaltender and Edinburgh born Charlie Gardiner, comprised the five northernmost mainland teams (Braehead Clan, Dundee Stars, Edinburgh Capitals, Fife Flyers and Hull Stingrays) and the Erhardt Conference, named after the captain of the British 1936 Winter Olympics gold medal winning team Carl Erhardt, comprised the four southernmost mainland teams (Cardiff Devils, Coventry Blaze, Nottingham Panthers and Sheffield Steelers) and the Belfast Giants. The Flyers would come within a whisker of their first major honour when they were pipped by a point for the Gardiner Conference by the Braehead Clan. A heated rivalry had developed that season between these two teams which endures today. The team with a 50% record in the Challenge Cup group were knocked out in the quarter finals by the eventual winners Nottingham Panthers. A race to make the playoff quarter final saw the Flyers stutter to four straight defeats but then make it across the line with three wins to end the season in 7th place. They met the Panthers again and narrowly missed out going to he Finals in Nottingham when they went down 5-4 on aggregate after a rousing 4-2 win over the league champions in Kirkcaldy. It was fair to say that the flyers had found their footing now in the top flight.
The Flyers were unable to keep a core of their imports together for the 2013-14 season with only Chaumont and Stewart returning so a busy summer ensued to keep the club progressing in the standings. Kevin Regan was recruited in nets and continued the clubs’ excellent recruitment in that position. Jordan Fulton was quickly a fan favourite with his all action, hard-nosed, goal getting style. Matt Reber was lightning fast, Roehl was an agitator, the enigmatic Ned Lukacevic would bewilder you one week and send you to despair the next. Arguably however the season belonged to the appearance of one Matt Nickerson. The type of player that Fife fans loved so much to be a target on the away bench and one they had very rarely had an opportunity to shout for. Matt knew his role, the league knew his role, unfortunately the authorities also knew his role. His first game he took Cardiff’s Andrew Lord to task for a late poke on Regan and was introduced to the Fife lounge for 3 games. He would be well acquainted with those surroundings including a 12 match ban reduced to 9 games for his part in the now red hot derby games against the Clan. There was no qualification from the group stages of the Challenge Cup, the league campaign saw the Flyers squeak over the playoff line by a point by virtue of winning their last 4 games of the regular season. (Note Cardiff finished 2nd bottom and missed out on the playoffs) It included dramatic shootout wins on the road over both Braehead and Dundee who were Conference Champs. Their final game of the season against Braehead had the auld barn absolutely rocking, the size of the crowd a throwback to the Heineken days of the 80’s. Flyers won 4-1 and matched up with Dundee in the playoff quarter final. Flyers had the momentum coming in as Stars had comfortably qualified and also had a banged up roster. It was a couple of rip roaring games with both arenas packed to he rafters. Flyers took a slender 4-3 advantage over the Tay where they put the Stars to the sword with a 4-1 win to take them to the Finals in Nottingham. Belfast Giants, who were league champions, awaited the Flyers in the first semi final and in a tense game the Giants progressed with the only goal of the game. Naturally the team looked to continue their upward trend entering their fourth EIHL season. On 30 April 2014, the Elite League announced changes to the import rules, as from the 2014–15 season, the number of non British-trained players would rise from 11 to 12, while the amount of work-permit players would remain at 11. The number of non British-trained players would then rise to 13 in season 2015-16 and 14 in season 2016-17, with the amount of work-permit players again remaining at 11. A core of players returned including the ever popular Kyle Haines on D and big Nicker was also back. Added to the forwards firepower were Scott Fleming and Chris Auger and on defence Jamie Milam and Niko Suoraniemi. Flyers proved a tough nut to crack on home ice in the Challenge Cup and progressed to meet Nottingham in the quarter finals. Ironically they lost 7-2 in Kirkcaldy and beat the Panthers 6-4 on the road to bow out. It was another dog fight in the league to make the top eight for playoff qualification. Home form remained good with points gained in 15 encounters whilst half of the road wins came against Dundee or Edinburgh, crucially none against Braehead who walked the Conference title. As with the last two seasons it was by the narrowest margins that they squeezed into the post season when despite losing their last two games they finished in 8th place, a point above the Capitals. They faced the league Champion Sheffield Steelers in the quarter final and a narrow 3-2 loss in Kirkcaldy suggested an easy passage for the Yorkshire club, the Flyers scratched and clawed their way through the game the following night just coming up short in a 3-3 tie.
The following season 2015-16 saw another wholesale roster change was undertaken during the summer months. Only Danny Stewart, in what would be his final season in Fife and Kyle Haines returned. David Brown was recruited in net from Hull Stingrays whilst all other recruits were new to the UK game. Justin Fox, Ryan Dingle, Shane Stockton, TJ Caig and Michael Dorr were top five in scoring. Nico Sacchetti who had been with the Stars two seasons before joined midway through the season to ignite the charge for the post season and Gardiner Conference title against bitter rivals Braehead. Nicholas Rioux, Philippe Paquet and Matt Delahey all played huge games on the blueline and Patrick Cullen ground down opposition defences every night. A 50% record in the Challenge Cup was enough to qualify for he knockout round and the Steelers once again returned with a 1st leg lead winning 4-2 in Fife. Again the Flyers almost pulled off a comeback when they won 4-3 in Sheffield to lose by an odd goal on aggregate. In the league and more specifically the Gardiner Conference the Flyers were dominant over the Braehead Clan winning 6 of the 8 encounters. A 50% record against the Stars and 5 wins from 8 against Storm was all for nothing when the point dropped against bottom dwelling Capitals early in the season in a shootout at Kirkcaldy eventually proved to be decisive. Fife and Clan were tied on points but goal difference saw Clan win the title. There was a mid-table 6th place finish in the league which didn’t require the now customary hand wringing amongst the fans as the season drew to a close. By virtue of their Conference win the Clan were seeded 3rd to play the 6th seeded Flyers in the playoff. Both games were electric and a late game winning goal from Kyle Haines in Fife gave the Flyers a 2-1 advantage which they saw out in a 2-2 tie the following night. A second trip to the finals in Nottingham where they matched up against the hometown Panthers. Panthers won this one 4-1 without too much fuss on their way to the title. Whilst disappointed the Fife fans are never ones to wallow too much and yet another party was had over the weekend, fuelled by the legions of purple jersey’s in the stands for a team that had failed to qualify. The Scots it appeared had taken over the town. There were returns for the 2016-17 season for Dingle, Fox, Paquet, Haines and Stockton who would pretty much miss the entire campaign through injury. New recruits Matthew Sisca and the hugely experienced Brendan Brooks were top three scores along with captain Ryan Dingle. Sebastien Thinel, Chase Schaber and Carlo Finucci all made solid contributions. In goal Shane Owen made a massive impact and on the back end ex Steeler Russ Moyer was joined by one time Stanley Cup winner Ric Jackman and David Turon. There was no progression in the Challenge Cup where only two wins were returned in the eight games. Four wins in the first five games of the league campaign however was a decent start. Home form was again a strong factor with only 9 of the 26 games not yielding any points. Only 11 of the corresponding road fixtures however yielded points but it was enough to once again take 6th place in the league. The Conference race was much more emphatic with the Clan, who took seven of the eight games from Fife, winning the back to back Gardiner titles. The playoff match-up with the Belfast Giants, who had finished second in the league, was a step too far for the team who lost respectably in Belfast 4-2 in the first leg but the Giants scored early goals to kill the tie on the way to a 4-1 win in Kirkcaldy.
So to last season, 2017-18. The league was increased to twelve teams with the inclusion of the Guildford Flames and the Milton Keynes Lightning. Finucci and Schaber returned to lead the scoring charts as did Stockton after healing from his injury. Russ Moyer also returned to captain the side along with James Isaacs. Andy Iles took Owen’s place in net as he moved to try his luck in Sweden. Liam Heelis and Peter Leblanc put up more than a point a game closely followed by Danick Gauthier. Stockton justified the faith shown in him and hard working Charlie Mosey and Evan Bloodoff played every shift every night. On defence the silky smooth skating Ian Young transitioned the puck superbly and there was a close understanding amongst the group that included Jim Jorgensen and Ricards Birzins. From the off the whole team appeared to click, the chemistry across all lines was obvious. 50% was good enough again to make the Challenge Cup quarter finals where the Belfast Giants who had beaten them twice in the group stage took care of business on their home ice after a 3-3 draw in Kirkcaldy when they hosed the Flyers 7-0. The one achievement the club craved the most was silverware in the shape of the Gardiner Conference. It was almost a no contest as the Flyers took advantage of on ice issues through in Glasgow and swept Clan in the eight game series. Edinburgh were also swept and only the Stars put up a fight which fittingly saw the Flyers travel to Dundee on the 18th of February needing just a single point to secure the silverware. In a pulsating game it looked as though the Flyers were cruising to victory until a late comeback saw the game end 6-6 in regulation. The point was enough, the bench celebrated but professionally completed the job by snatching the overtime winner. It was a comfortable 7th place league finish as the Conference winners were no longer were seeded and so the Flyers met the 2nd placed Manchester Storm in the playoff quarterfinal. In a season that had already delivered so many highlight games including coming from 5-1 behind in Cardiff to win 8-6 the second leg in Manchester topped the lot. The Storm came to Kirkcaldy with a cocky swagger and the Flyers appeared to be flat footed most of the night with the Storm taking a surprisingly easy looking 4-1 lead. An army of Flyers fans undaunted however made the trek to Altrincham the following night and made a belated April Fools out of the homeside. Little by little they chipped away at the Storm aggregate and even recovered from losing a further goal to win regulation 4-1 and take the tie to sudden death OT. In stepped Carlo Finucci with a top class finish that sent the Fife fans into raptures and almost the whole of the home fanbase sat with their head in their hands. It was another Nottingham Finals disappointment however as the Flyers were blanked 4-0 by the powerhouse Cardiff Devils and there was much consideration of what might have been if the highly influential Young and Bloodoff had not missed out through injury. It had been a blast though and what a way for the club to head into its 80th season.
What does the future hold, stay tuned as it’s almost certainly nothing that anyone can predict given the previous decades.
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CraggyP
Junior
Posts: 903
NHL Team: Tampa Bay Lightning
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Post by CraggyP on Jul 14, 2019 22:22:38 GMT
Nothing like a bit of light hockey reading before bed on a Sunday lol
Its just unreal how far back i can go and recall what is written.
Thanks rossco
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